[nosmokewhereiam]

Any recommendations for detection at home? Are wearable dosimeters enough to detect before damage occurs?

...or if there is already a crowdsourced detection effort for looking out for this sort of thing, that'd be a cool map to plot.

[BetterGeiger]

Yes, I recommend mine ;) ... the "Better Geiger S-1"

In the budget price range (~$150 and under) my detector, which uses a solid scintillator, and a traditional Geiger tube based device are really the only options worth considering.

The pros of my detector are high range (max 20 mSv/hr vs typically 1 mSv/hr for common Geiger tubes), roughly 3x higher X-ray/gamma sensitivity, and automatic energy-correction of dose rate for better accuracy in realistic scenarios. I also think the design is pretty robust and user-friendly, people seem to like it.

A traditional Geiger tube has some pros also. The only ones worth getting in the budget range, in my opinion, are the GQ GMC type (there are variants but most are basically the same). They are a little cheaper and they have more bells and whistles like data logging. Another pro is that they have higher beta sensitivity, but that's a con also. Antiques like uranium glass and fiestaware are primarily low energy beta emitters so my detector reacts very weakly but a Geiger tube reacts very strongly. That's a con also, though, because when measuring dose you should NOT measure beta, so it means traditional Geiger tubes dramatically overestimate dose rate when they are exposed to beta (a common mistake among beginners).

Just please don't buy any of the super cheap import detectors that have suddenly appeared on the market in the last year or so, they are all terrible.

At higher prices (~$400 and up) there are a lot of different options with pros and cons, it just depends what the intended applications of the detector are.

[POPOSYS]

Do you have any partner company in Europe that would help with reducing shipping costs for individuals?

[BetterGeiger]

Unfortunately not yet. Right now I am struggling to keep up with demand but when I have some more units on hand I'll probably try to set up Amazon fulfillment in some countries in Europe.

[13of40]

You can get a detector/dosimeter on Amazon in the $50ish range. I got one a while back and verified it works for increased background radiation at 30,000 feet in a plane and separately with an alpha radiation source. The interesting thing is if you leave it on the background radiation sometimes just spikes for no apparent reason. Maybe something like a cosmic ray hitting the sensor every once in a while?

The one I got is on Amazon as "Geiger Counter Nuclear Radiation Detector, Professional High Accuracy Radioactive Detector Meter Beta Gamma X Ray Data Tester Marble Dosimeter".

[Piskvorrr]

SafeCast? https://safecast.org/ - they have a map, too, but it's a mostly-boring "normal background" with a couple of "normal slightly elevated background" where local geology matters.