title: Performance of a commercial radon-in-water measurement kit.
abstract: Methods currently approved for the measurement of radon ((222)Rn) in water in New York State are liquid scintillation counting and emanation into alpha-scintillation cells. A passive system using an electret ion chamber (EIC) was evaluated as an alternative for the measurement of radon in water. Over 130 water samples from a community water supply containing 32BqL(-1) and 30 standards containing 686BqL(-1) were measured using the EIC method over 1- to 4-day exposure times. For comparison, identical samples were measured using liquid scintillation counting. Results of duplicate samples were typically within 5% for liquid scintillation counting and within 10% for the EIC. With respect to accuracy, the EIC produced results that were consistently low by 11-15%.
authors.affiliation: Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY 12201, USA. kitto@wadsworth.org
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Kitto
authors.forename: Eileen M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Fielman
authors.forename: Douglas K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Haines
authors.forename: Traci A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Menia
authors.forename: Abdul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bari
mesh_terms: D011886:Radon / Q000032:analysis*; D012588:Scintillation Counting; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive; D011886:Radon