The earliest evidence of increased lung cancer risk associated with radon came largely from studies of highly exposed underground miners. In the United States, concerns about residential exposures became prominent in the early 1980s with the identification of the Watras home, which had remarkably elevated radon concentrations. By then, the problem of indoor radon was already recognized in Europ...

BACKGROUND Studies of underground miners exposed to radioactive radon and its decay products have found that exposure increases risk of lung cancer. Consequently, when radon was found to accumulate in houses, there was concern about the public health impact from exposure to a known carcinogen. Estimates on the basis of studies of underground miners suggest that indoor radon may account for 6000...

BACKGROUND The main sources of radiation exposure of all living organisms including humans are natural. In fact, radon and its decay products are the cause of 50% of the total dose that is derived from natural sources. Because of the significant health hazards of radon gas, its levels are widely monitored throughout the world. Accordingly, considerable researches have also been carried out in I...

A heavily instrumented and unoccupied research house is used to continuously monitor the temperature in each room, the supply and return ducts, HVAC thermostat location, attic and outdoors. Simultaneous measurements of the differential pressures have been performed across the house walls, indoorfattic zones, the house slab and the indoor zones. Indoor radon concentrations and meteorological con...

background: radon (222rn) measurement in the residential environments is very important because of its effecting on human health and causing cancer in the respiratory system. 222rn is individually responsible for half of the natural radiation received in humans and influences on human by breathing. hence, this study was undertaken to access the 222rn level in the dormitories of kerman universit...

Radon (Rn) is a naturally occurring radioactive element, a noble gas that is produced in radium disintegration. Radon has the biggest contribution to the effective dose obtained by population. Increased morbidity of lung cancer in uranium miners and an observation that radon exposure in certain houses may be comparable to the exposure in uranium mines have caused the increase of interest in rad...

The recent publications of the combined analyses of residential radon studies in Europe and North America have shown that there is a significant risk of lung cancer at residential radon levels. In order to assess the population risk due to radon, the knowledge of the spatial distribution of indoor radon levels is essential. Here a preliminary radon map for Canada is presented, based on historic...

The State of Florida has a radon standard for new construction. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of two slab types (monolithic and slab-in-stem wall) in retarding radon entry in new houses built in accordance with the proposed standard over high radon potential soils. Fourteen houses were monitored during their construction on sites whose soil gas radon concentrations were...

Although the principal means to confirm indoor radon involves testing buildings, soil-based investigations are of value in identifying land areas that pose special concerns. Ideally, soil-based measurements would relate to radon production, diffusive transport, and convective transport into buildings. This paper briefly reviews technologies for measuring radon in soil gas, radon flux, and soil ...

Inhalation of indoor radon ((222)Rn) and thoron ((220)Rn) decay products is the most important source of exposure to ionizing radiation for the human respiratory tract. Decreasing ventilation rates due to energy saving reasons in new buildings suggest additional active mitigation techniques to reduce the exposure in homes with high radon and thoron concentrations but poor ventilation. Filtratio...