Radon is the number two cause of lung cancer behind smoking cigarettes.
Among non-smokers it is the number one cause of lung cancer, accounting for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in non-smokers in USA annually.
I'm sure it must have come as quite a shock to these people to learn that even though they did not smoke they still got lung cancer and it wasn't from second-hand smoke.
I know I would be very angry in that situation; angry that I had not been informed.

Some people on here know that I used to work in Industrial Safety, starting around 2006.
I quit working in that field in 2014 by my own choice.
In 2011, I was tasked with providing NORM Awareness training to a little over 500 people.
NORM = Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material.
NORM is all around us everywhere, all day long but it is more concentrated in some situations like bitumen extraction, among other things.
Enough to pose a health risk.
For two whole weeks I was giving two presentations a day so I pretty much memorized that material by heart.
It was also around that time that I first learned of the existence of Radon and it's ability to cause lung cancer in non-smokers.

In the PP presentation there was one lonely slide that mentioned the tobacco plant was the most efficient plant in the world at absorbing NORM from surrounding soil and depositing it in the leaves.
That tidbit of info was not expounded upon.
There was no further reference to it, not even an explanation of why it had been included in the presentation but it caught my attention and stuck with me.

Several weeks after the job was over and I had a chance to unwind and revert to lower adrenaline levels I began to ponder the NORM/Radon relationship.
The thought occurred to me that maybe it was the NORM in tobacco that was giving people lung cancer rather than the tar.
Pot tokers get way more tar than tobacco smokers but there's not a lot of reported incidence of lung cancer in toking non-smokers.
The idea occurred there might be a huge market for tobacco grown in NORM-free soil, if there is a such thing as NORM-free soil..

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Sounds like a good Sunday, Paul. Pretty much the same here.

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

Long Live The Night
- The Reklaws

live at the Grey Cup

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

After a few hours of playing shredder boy in the office, I gave it up to watch football. No contest.
FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Just finish filming for a music video.

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I enjoyed your post about NORM, Matt. I knew about the radon and you are bang on. I did some audio/video reports with the authorities in the 70s. Still, as you well know, like EMF, it is downplayed (like many things) by the public.

Your tobacco observations are also on the money. The paper and filters play a part too. Chemicals definitely change the disease pattern compared to that of many who live long, sometimes at higher altitudes, with less or no over produced tobacco products touching their lips. I once had a list of all the chemicals known to be in our cigarettes, at least in mine at two packs a day back when. Well over 50 culprits lurked in that paper, including the most brutal ones. No sermon here, just a fact. I’m not so sure today’s bleached or unbleached paper or vaping ingredients pass the litmus test either. I do know many plastics can change their composition with extreme heat, and food is not recommended with such containers. I don’t know if this is a concern or even possible, but I wouldn’t want to find out, I seem to recall a failed plastic pipe in yesteryear. Time will tell. Bad, good, better is small consolation compared to best. Respectfully, if I had it to do over again, I’d opt for clean lungs even though I miss my pipe; but, that’s just me and YMMV.

It would appear that, based on it’s composition, pot is less of a cancer problem than tobacco; but, that is not the only ruler to measure by. If pot outsells tobacco, the cancer role may reverse with more players doing MJ and less using tobacco, which may be close to those figures now. I don’t know. Cancer related to smoking could become just a numbers game. YMMV.

I had many NBCD (Nuclear Biological Chemical Defence) lessons in the military and that was pretty informative.But, for taking a health risk, including cancer, you’d be hard pressed to find a healthy corner in a shipyard. In my case I spent time l on some down and dirty WWII warships full of lead and asbestos everywhere, smoke and fumes, ear shattering noise and burnt wiring amongst a slew of other issues. That doesn’t lessen the effects of radon; but, it speaks for itself.

I do know, from having a family who worked with and lived by a CANDU reactor, that there was some thought of those in the business to likely have a shorter expected life by 6 to 8 years more or less. I don’t know how they got those figures, or what the conditions are, but it sounds feasible.

Rumour has it that many airports aren’t having their x-ray machines maintained enough. Sometimes, I think X-rays are given more than they should be, by bending the rules or not having the knowledge of an earlier event. This year I could have had an album.
One thing for certain, radon, whether it’s more potent, more accessible, or both, for the moment, it is a front runner as you said, Matt.

FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Getting ready for a good day. I'm not sure what the day will bring but I have a feeling that it will be good. I had a great day, physically, yesterday and was able to do quite a bit of walking, shopping, etc. Let's all have a good one today.

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

Not sure what I'm doing today, to be honest. Maybe go for a walk, since it's actually not raining for a change.

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Going to watch some movies that I've recorded, and put in some bass time.

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The wife and I did some Christmas shopping on Saturday, and the mall was packed. A lot earlier than what I recall in years past. I guess with black Friday going to be extended forever, (almost).

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"Electric Lady"

It was total crap weather today with a lot of rain, so I just stayed in and watched a couple of movies and played some bass.

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I continued my mission tonight and this morning looking for a replacement printer. I’m getting close to narrowing it down with no winner in clear sight. Well, I thought I had one. Then I read an Aussie photography review. It pointed out that the self fill ink tanks of my choice use four dye and one pigment ink(s). The difference is possible colour change and or fading within six to eighteen years. Six to eight without protection, and maybe eighteen under correct glass and lighting. This is where dye makes this ink savings less expensive, and pigment, good for several decades, is more costly and common. Not that I’ll be around to see the colour loss on my prints; but, I may fade to black before the eighteen years. The search continues.
FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

The sun actually came out today, and it's not raining, so it looks like I might get to go for a walk today.

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Going to walk around the shops and whatever. It's a bit too windy and cold to walk my usual route.

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I'm doing some laundry, maybe I can go for a walk today, as well. It's been very cold and windy out lately, so that hasn't been too appealing of an option.

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