BackgroundGlobally, radon is a natural contaminant that affects indoor air quality. Several epidemiological studies have implicated high radon levels in the causality of lung cancer. The study therefore determined the environmental level of radon in selective offices in the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. A Pro 3-series radon detector was used to determine the radon levels in randomly selected offices. The instrument was set-up in each office and after 48 h, reading was taken and recorded on a proforma data sheet. The structural characteristics of the offices were also assessed by observation.ResultsThe result revealed that the radon level obtained in the sampled offices ranged from 0.0 to 5.3 pCi/L (196 Bq/m3). The median concentration of radon obtained from sampled offices was 0.9 pCi/L. Almost all (95 %) of the offices had radon levels within the ‘permissible’ reference level recommended by World Health Organization. Radon levels also showed a statistically significant decline with height of office building with the mean concentration of radon in offices located on the basement, ground floor and first floor being 1.54 ± 1.32, 0.99 ± 0.56, 0.63 ± 0.41 pCi/L respectively, (F statistic 5.8, p < 0.001).ConclusionThe radon levels obtained in most assessed offices in Obafemi Awolowo University were found to be within the permissible reference levels. Mitigation measures should be put in place in the few offices above permissible levels.

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Additional information is available at the end of the chapter http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/57473 . IntroductionPharmacology is the science that studies the physiological and biological effects of exogenous substances which are not part of the internal milieu of a living organism whether natural or synthetic termed xenobiotics drugs, chemicals on the cells, tissues, or organs of the organisms. There are many specialized areas of pharmacology and these include clinical pharmacology which deals with the application of pharmacological principles and methods in the medical clinic with the focus on patient care and outcomes, neuro-pharmacology which deals with effects of medication on central and peripheral nervous system function, psychopharmacology which observes the effect of medication on the changed behaviours of the mind and body and how molecular events are manifested in a measurable behaviourable form. Other areas are pharmacodynamics the chemical effect on the body, pharmacogenetics the genetic variation that gives rise to differing response to drug, and the related area of pharmacogenomics, which is the application of genome technologies and the influence of the whole human genome on drug response, toxicology which studies the harmful effect of drugs or chemicals and their molecular targets and characterization, pharmacognosy the study of medicinal substances of biological origin, pharmacokinetics that deals with the effect of the body on chemical half life and lastly environmental pharmacology which can be defined as the effect of pharmaceuticals and house care products on the environment and the ecosystem HallingSorensen et al . Environmental pharmacology is a relatively new and emerging specialty of pharmacology. It involves the study of gene-environment interaction, drug-environment interaction and toxin-environment interaction. It is important to emphasize at this stage that the different terms used interchangeable with environmental pharmacology include ecopharmacology, and pharmacoenvironmentology, ecotoxicology. However, a close similarity exists between environmental pharmacology and ecotoxicology. Environmental pharmacology entails the study of environmental science, medicine, ecology, genetics and chemistry.