Radon poisoning-what happens?

Question

i know radon is gasious, tasteless, odorless...

but what happens to your body when you get radon poisoning?

we talked about it some in me physics/chemistry class, but we never got to WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BODY?

beware, i heard it's kinda gross, but that's kinda why im fascinated...

Answer 1

The radon is unstable as an element, and its nucleus decays (I don't know exactly where it is in the U decay sceme).   The decay causes high energy electromagnetic radiation to be emitted into your lungs.   Sooner or later, the damaged lung tissue will mutate into a cancerous mass, which replaces good lung tissue.   This switch leads to a situation where your lungs cannot pass enough oxygen into your blood  to service the needs of cells.   So you eventually die, as you can only trade off the concentration of O2 in your air as a means of getting O2 into your blood until you have pure O2 as the "air".  

Answer 2

It's a leading cause of LUNG cancer and Radon is very common in certain parts of the country so it is a very good idea to have your home tested.