Testing local dust storm

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2011-05-26 12:05

Yesterday we had a foul dust storm, followed by just enough rain to make it stick to everything. Thinking that this would be a good time to check out that fine dust that had recently been deposited, I whipped out my cracker jack "radiation meter" (Monitor 4.

Anyhow, I held it 1"over the hood of a vehicle that had been in the storm, stationary, for the duration. A 5 minute count of 93. That's 18.6 CPM.

Then I went back in the garage and did a "background test" which came in at 125 counts over 5 minutes = 25 CPM. Interestingly, over the past weeks tests, I have typically had the count in the garage be about 3 CPM over the count in the house. Perhaps the concrete floor? Tramp radon from the water heater/nat gas house heater?

Results = inconclusive. But it doesn't appear that the dust storm laid out anything very radioactive.

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Thanks for taking data, BC.

Submitted by bandstra on Thu, 2011-05-26 12:21.

Thanks for taking data, BC. Though you didn't see anything, I will add you to our page of measurements by forum participants!

The differences between in the house and in the garage could be due to a variety of things -- I think radon and concrete are good guesses, especially K-40 and other naturally-occurring radioactive minerals in the concrete.

If you get any rainfall soon and want to see some radioactivity, you could try measuring the rain collected on your vehicle by sopping it up with a towel and taking regular measurements over the course of a few hours like James did with his air filter. You might be surprised at how radioactive radon decay products can be (albeit for only a short time)!

Mark [BRAWM Team Member]

Forgot to note, I am the OP.

Submitted by BC (not verified) on Thu, 2011-05-26 12:06.

Forgot to note, I am the OP. Still working on the functionality of this forum :). BC.