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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Is Your Lawn Radioactive Too? N95 Dust Mask Test



I mowed the lawn on Labor Memorial Day, and wore the N95 dust mask shown in the video. After roughly 2 hours in the backyard mowing, the Geiger counter readings of the mask showed radioactive contamination as high as 0.03 mR/hr. Normally I would call that 3X background, but background levels were a little more variable the day of the test making the reading less precise. To be conservative, the contamination readings from the mask varied from 1x to 2x background radiation. The grass was dry to the touch in the yard, but slightly damp in the bag. No visible dirt or dust was kicked up from the mowing. I have performed the same test a few times over the last several weeks, and there has been indications of radioactive contamination every time.

1 comment:

  1. You should have the mask gamma spec'ed to see what isotopes are present. I would suspect radon.

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