{"id":18284,"date":"2023-12-18T01:19:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T19:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=18284"},"modified":"2025-04-05T09:56:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T04:26:37","slug":"radon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/radon\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Radon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Radon<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Radon is a\u00a0radioactive gas that\u00a0forms naturally\u00a0when uranium, thorium, or radium, which are\u00a0radioactive metals, break down in rocks, soil, and groundwater.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is an\u00a0inert, colourless, and odourless gas.<\/li>\n<li>Radon gas usually\u00a0exists at very low levels outdoors, but the gas\u00a0can accumulate in areas without adequate ventilation, such as underground mines.<\/li>\n<li>Radon can\u00a0get into homes and buildings\u00a0through small cracks or holes and build up in the air.<\/li>\n<li>Radon levels may\u00a0be higher in homes that are well insulated, tightly sealed, and\/or built on soil rich in the elements uranium, thorium, and radium.<\/li>\n<li>As we breathe,\u00a0these particles are deposited on the cells lining the airways, where they can\u00a0damage DNA and potentially\u00a0cause lung cancer.<\/li>\n<li>It is the second-most\u00a0important cause of lung cancer after smoking and the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.<\/li>\n<li>According to the WHO, radon is estimated to cause between\u00a03% to 14% of all lung cancers in a country, depending on the national average radon level and smoking prevalence.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is radioactivity?<\/h3>\n<p>Radioactivity is the property of some unstable atoms (radionuclides) to spontaneously emit nuclear radiation, usually alpha particles or beta particles often accompanied by gamma-rays. This radiation is emitted when the nucleus undergoes radioactive decay and is converted into a different isotope which may, according to its number of neutrons and protons, be either radioactive (unstable) or non-radioactive (stable). This \u201cdaughter\u201d nucleus will usually be of a different chemical element to the original isotope<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news9live.com\/health\/explained-radon-a-silent-killer-and-second-leading-cause-of-lung-cancer-with-21000-annual-deaths-2379742\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Explained: Radon a silent killer and second leading cause of lung cancer with 21,000 annual deaths<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radon is a radioactive gas that forms naturally when uranium, thorium, or radium, which are radioactive metals, break down in rocks, soil, and groundwater. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}