4 ms·
I visited a friend in Elliot Lake once and we stopped at a plaque on the side of the highway to read. A geologist friend came along, and he recognized the forma
by xattt 2y ago
I visited a friend in Elliot Lake once and we stopped at a plaque on the side of the highway to read. A geologist friend came along, and he recognized the formation of the rocks under our feet as uranium-bearing. I had brought my Geiger counter along, and sure enough, these were hot too.
As you mention: no warning signs, no caution tape. Being close enough to that in any “anthropoid” setting would require, at the very least, a dosimetry badge.
I can live within that cognitive dissonance, but it’s just an interesting observation.
- jjkaczor 2y agoIn vast sections of Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Quebec (and probably many other areas) anyone with a basement has to monitor for radon gas - it's just a normal part of the environment overall because of the geological makeup. If you can keep a window or two open - it's not so bad - we use an smart bluetooth-connected monitor that I check daily - CO2 seems to be more of a problem than the radon.
- alnwlsn 2y agoYes. Live in one of those areas and "radon mitigation systems" are common. There is a sealed lid that goes over your sump pump cover, and a fan constantly pulls air from it, which goes up a tube on the side of your house and empties near the roofline.
- tecleandor 2y agoRelatively common is the cities around Madrid (Spain) mountains, and then to the west and northwest due to the granite there. Specially because lots of the houses in the area were built with that local granite.
- zh3 2y agoSimilar in parts of the UK (where there's granite) - there's a map of radon-prone areas on the UK Government website. * https://www.ukradon.org/information/ukmaps https://www.ukradon.org/information/ukmaps
- Joker_vD 2y agoWell, what's the alternative? Walk all over the US of A, measuring radiation at every square foot? That's prohibitively expensive even today for a rather dubious benefit: most of the terrain is not (yet) noticeably radioactive, after all.
- xattt 2y agoThere’s no alternative, other than recognizing that these dichotomies exist. A brown bear in the wild doesn’t have any warning signs or set off any alarms, but it sure would if it was in a human-occupied building. Context is key! :)