Speechless Sunday: From The Zoo

The Detroit Zoo is a wonderful place to take the family. My particular favorite place is the Butterfly Gardens. Besides being a nice, warm place to go during the colder months, I think the dozens of varieties of butterflies are wonderful. Here is one of my favorites.

The Detroit Zoo is located at I-696 and Woodward Avenue in Huntington Woods, next door to Royal Oak.

Strike Up "The Hallelujah Chorus" This Season: The Detroit Lions Win A Road Game!

It only took 26 away games and about 3 years and two months, but the Detroit Lions finally found a way to end their long away-game losing streak!

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the squad that will go down in the record books as the team who just couldn't get it done against the Lions... although they had their opportunities.

Dave Rayner kicked a field goal with 9:51 left in overtime, giving the Lions a 23-20 victory on the road... the last time they experienced such a feeling since October 28... 2007!

Drew Stanton, former Michigan State great, was the winning QB.

What can I say? Wow. We finally did it!

Congratulations, Lions! Maybe the Lion fan mantra, "there's always next year," will have more meaning now.

In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy this early Christmas gift.

What Makes Radon Gas So Dangerous In Michigan Homes?

We all have heard about radon, the colorless, tasteless, odorless gas produced by the decay of uranium and radium. But what makes it so dangerous? And how likely is it to be a problem in the typical Michigan house?

Radioactivity

The basic problem is this: radon is radioactive.

Take a look at the pictures above. This is hydrogen. At left we have an electron and a proton... no problem, it is stable. In the middle picture, we add a neutron. Again, no big deal, the hydrogen is stable.

But in the picture on the right, we add a second neutron, and that throws things out of balance. The addition of the second neutron made the nucleus unstable. Or, in other words, adding two neutrons (right picture) to the simple hydrogen nucleus (left picture) causes it to become radioactive.

So that is radioactivity for non-scientists in a nutshell.

Radioactive Decay

Radioactive decay is when radioactive nuclei of atoms fall apart (disintegrate). These disintegrations release energy and the nucleus changes into the nucleus of a different atom. In the case of radon, the process starts with the breakdown of uranium, which breaks down into radium, which in turn produces radon.

Radon then decays into other substances (called radon decay products or RDP's) which are also radioactive. The process continues until non-radioactive lead is created.

Isotopes are different forms of an element that have the same number of protons, but a different number of neutrons in their nucleus. There are several different isotopes of radon, but public health is focused on one specific isotope: Radon 222, with 86 protons and 136 neutrons.

Both radon and its decay products can be inhaled, delivering a dose of radiation to the lung tissue. Approximately 50% of RDP's attach to walls and floors, where they are "plated out." That is, they are no longer floating in the air, so they aren't a big problem.

But the other 50% easily attach to objects like dust or smoke and can be breathed into the lungs. In sufficient exposures, this can lead to lung cancer.

If radon is present at high enough levels, the threat of lung cancer increases -- especially among smokers.

So that is the very brief and science-minimal explanation of why radon gas is dangerous.

Radon Dangers In Michigan Home

According to the EPA, here is the radon danger per county for Michigan homes:

If you are interested, you can find many articles on radon at michigan-indoor-air-quality.com/radon.html

Michigan's deer season is in full swing, but my kind of shooting is done with a camera. Here are two nice bucks right here in Troy, going at it yesterday.

A hard-won victory for one, and a vanquished foe hightailing it for safer ground.

Michigan Says "NO" To Mandatory Residential Fire Sprinklers

It is the code battle you probably never heard of...

Every three years, the International Residential Code (IRC) is updated. The Michigan Residential Code (MRC) is fine-tuned using the IRC as the template.

One of the big changes in the recent IRC is the mandate that new homes be built with residential fire sprinkler systems (very similar to what you'd see in a commercial building), which adds a major amount of money to the construction cost. While the idea was championed by organizations like the National Fire Protection Association for the safety benefits, organizations like the Michigan Association of Home Builders (MAHB) fought with everything they had, due to the economic impact it would have on builders and buyers.

Finally, the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (DELEG) has come to a decision -- it rejected a proposal to force home buyers to equip their new homes with fire sprinklers. This means that residential fire sprinklers are a voluntary option available to purchasers of new homes.

This is the second consecutive code cycle in which the DELEG has rejected efforts to impose a mandatory sprinkler requirement on Michigan homeowners.

To date, 26 states (including Michigan) have opted out of the mandatory residential sprinkler requirements set in the IRC.

“The next edition of the Michigan Residential Code, which goes into effect early in 2011, will not contain the controversial mandate for fire sprinklers in one- and two-family homes and townhouses found in the International Residential Code published by the International Code Council,” said Lee Schwartz, executive vice president for government relations of the Michigan Association of Home Builders (MAHB). “We applaud the department’s decision to let homebuyers decide for themselves the best way to protect their family and improve their quality of life. Dollars involuntarily spent on a sprinkler system wouldn’t be available for improved medical care, better insurance, a safer and more fuel-efficient car, education expenses, or retirement accounts.”

Side note: The MRC coming out in early 2011 is the 2009 Michigan Residential Code. Even though it becomes the official building code in 2011, it is based on the 2009 International Residential Code, hence the "2009" title in a 2011 product.

DELEG cited questions about the reliability and effectiveness residential fire sprinkler systems and the cost of compliance as reasons for their decision. Among the documented evidence DELEG considered:

• A January 2008 study by Fire Analysis and Research Division of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) concluding “The chances of surviving a reported home fire when working smoke alarms are present are 99.45%. …“
  
• A January 2009 NFPA report entitled “U.S. Experience With Sprinklers And Other Automatic Fire Extinguishing Equipment” showing from 2003 to 2006 inclusive, in all residential one- and two-family homes in the nation equipped with sprinklers where fires occurred, sprinklers did not operate in 60% of the fires and in another 1% did not operate effectively.
  
• A May 2010 study from the University of Maryland’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering finding there are fewer casualties that occur in fires too small to activate the smoke detectors/alarms than those fires that are too small to activate the sprinklers. In laboratory fire tests, when the fire sprinkler did not extinguish the fire, the recorded levels of carbon monoxide and nitrate gases were in the fatal effective dose ranges making the conditions within the area untenable. The number one cause of death from fire is asphyxiation from smoke inhalation.
  
• An analysis of seven years (2000-2006) of Michigan-specific residential fire death statistics revealed 93% of the 131 annual residential fire deaths in Michigan’s 4.5 million residences occurred in homes without working smoke alarms.

Joining MAHB in the fight against mandatory residential fire sprinklers were: Habitat for Humanity of Michigan, the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan, the Michigan Association of Counties, the American Institute of Architects/Michigan, several regional chambers of commerce, many building inspectors (i.e. the city inspectors, not home inspectors), and a number of affordable housing organizations.