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Radon is in the same group as helium and the other noble gases. It’s in
the highly un-reactive material. However radon has quite an importance
because it is formed by the radioactive decomposition of some other
elements. As I mentioned you can imagine radioactivity as a droplet of
water splitting into two, and they don’t have to split into equal halves and
you can quite often be left with radon. Now if you live in areas of the
world where there is radioactive material in the minerals in the ground,
then radon as a gas, which is quite long-lived, can come up through the
ground and accumulate in your house, and then if you breathe it in, in
principle it can cause lung cancer, and so there are some parts of the UK
where radon levels are much higher than others particularly those areas
that are based on granite. But it’s very unpredictable because if there
happens to be cracks in the rocks under your house you can get more
radon than the guy next door and so there has, from time to time, been
a lot of worry about radon in the air. But for most people it’s not
something that you should really worry about.