Radon detector for the home

breadmonkey

I saw something on the news (I think. It was either the news or an ad) about this home kit for testing levels of Radon gas in the home. You send it off to them after 3 months and they test it for you to get the results. Just curious as to how it works. It's only a little plastic bottle. Surely it can;t be a Geiger counter. Tablets of some sort?

ApeXaviour

The radiological protection institute of ireland (rpii) offer these.

Here's information about radiation in the home:
http://www.rpii.ie/download/radonbroc04.pdf
This is what the detectors look like: http://www.rpii.ie/images/jpgs/RadonDetector2004.jpg

You can apply to the rpii for these detectors using this form: http://www.rpii.ie/radon/domesticappform.htm

As far as I know they usually use a special type of plastic and then do chemical etching and alpha track counting on them.
I've heard of others where they expose a charcoal canister and then do gamma spectroscopy on it for decay products..

There's lots of techniques used for this. Different ones suit better or worse depending on the circumstances etc..