Radon in the Bath

[Nimrod103]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... e-gas.html

This doesn’t make sense. Radon is only a problem where the underlying rocks are granite. Bath is underlain by thousands of metres of limestone, shale, sandstone and coal. What isn’t being reported here?

[Spet0789]

Firstly, the Mail is a comic not a newspaper.

Secondly, what is the building made of? I suspect it’s stone containing radon-precursor elements.

[Mike4]

Firstly, the Mail is a comic not a newspaper.

Secondly, what is the building made of? I suspect it’s stone containing radon-precursor elements.

All very puzzling. 'Something' must have provoked the reawakening of the HSE interest in the site. The article doesn't mention any of the kids getting ill or needing medical attention, so what drew their attention, I wonder?

The building looks to me as though its made of "Bath Stone", a sedimentary locally mined stone so also unlikely to be the source of radon. There are no mentions of radon on the wiki page for the stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_stone

[servodude]

Firstly, the Mail is a comic not a newspaper.

Secondly, what is the building made of? I suspect it’s stone containing radon-precursor elements.

All very puzzling. 'Something' must have provoked the reawakening of the HSE interest in the site. The article doesn't mention any of the kids getting ill or needing medical attention, so what drew their attention, I wonder?

The building looks to me as though its made of "Bath Stone", a sedimentary locally mined stone so also unlikely to be the source of radon. There are no mentions of radon on the wiki page for the stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_stone

Well the place looks old enough to have been around when radon was a "treatment" you would stick in bathing water so perhaps there's is stuff that has seeped in through usage

[Urbandreamer]

Well the place looks old enough to have been around when radon was a "treatment" you would stick in bathing water so perhaps there's is stuff that has seeped in through usage

Radon has a half life measured in days.
However apparently Radon is relatively prevalent in the area.
https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/hou ... airs/radon

I'm not going to bother with the Dailymail, but was it possibly this story.

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/som ... 00-8617364

An investigation from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that Kingswood School were aware they had an issue with radon in some of their buildings in 2007. However, between 2010 and 2018, the school carried out no further monitoring or checks on the control measures introduced to reduce concentrations of the gas.

As I understand "control" can be as simple as increasing ventilation, though obviously sealing floors would help.
Of course you would need to monitor to check if your efforts are/were effective. Otherwise you don't know that you have achieved more than running around in circles and paining yourself blue.
https://www.ukradon.org/information/reducelevels

[GoSeigen]

Well the place looks old enough to have been around when radon was a "treatment" you would stick in bathing water so perhaps there's is stuff that has seeped in through usage

Are you not thinking of Radox???



GS

[Nimrod103]

Firstly, the Mail is a comic not a newspaper.

Secondly, what is the building made of? I suspect it’s stone containing radon-precursor elements.

Firstly, it's on the BBC as well:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-66262273

Secondly, a building built of granite would not produce enough radon from breakdown of feldspar to be measurable. These buildings are almost certainly made of Bath Stone.

[odysseus2000]

Bath has hot springs, hot springs are created by the hearing effect of radioactive decay within the earth.

Radon is really soluble in water.

Radioactive decays occur, one product is the noble gas radon which dissolves in water & then comes up to the surface in the hot spring water & then leaves the water in aerosol forms as the water is splashed around.

Regards,

[scotia]

Radium in the Bath Hot Springs -https://bathmedicalmuseum.org/radioactivity-in-medicine/ - from the Bath Medical Museum.

By 1950, mention of radioactivity had been dropped from spa brochures. In fact, the amount of radiation is well below the level considered dangerous to health even if someone spent days bathing in the water.

As to the source of its radioactivity, I couldn't find any detail - apart from the water having risen from great depths.

There is an updated Radon Map of Great Britain available from https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/updated-radon-map-for-great-britain-published/

I plugged in a post code of Kingswood School, Bath - and was disappointed by the map which shows percentage levels of radon in shades of mauve - but to my old eyes it is extremely difficult to separate out the shades into numbers.