Skip to main content
A&WMA ACE 2025 Main banner
Final Program


Final Program

ACE 2025

AQMM

Case Studies in Air Monitoring

Airborne Radioactivity Downwind of Colorado's Largest Oil Refinery

Tuesday, June 10, 2025
1:50pm – 2:10pm ET
Location: 302B
Abstract Description: The EPA estimates 21,100 lung cancer deaths per year in the United States due to radon exposure. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in non smokers. Airborne radioactivity from fossil fuel production systems is poorly characterized. Here, we report year-long, high temporal resolution monitoring results of airborne alpha radioactivity from both radon gas and radon progeny attached to particulates immediately northeast of Colorado's largest oil refinery in Commerce City, Colorado, USA, in an environmental justice community of concern. Gas and particle-associated radioactivity contributed nearly evenly to the total alpha radioactivity. Total radioactivity levels of 30–40 Bq m−3 were 2–3 times higher than background levels (~10–15 Bq m−3) when winds were light and southwesterly from the direction of the refinery, suggesting the refinery as the emission source. Elevated airborne radioactivity tracked most closely with the natural gas tracer ethane, implying natural gas as the radon emission carrier. Observations were within an environmental justice community of concern that experiences well above-average exposure to many other harmful atmospheric pollutants, suggesting potential adverse health effects from this cumulative exposure. Our findings suggest a need for further investigations of emissions of radon and its progenies from oil and gas infrastructure such as natural gas processing plants, compressor stations, petrochemical plants, and oil refineries that process oil and natural gas from unconventional production and the need for studies on the resulting exposure of downwind communities.