Significant reduction in indoor radon in newly built houses

Finne, Ingvild; Kolstad, Trine; Larsson, Maria; Olsen, Bård; Prendergast, Josephine; Rudjord, Anne Liv

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2018.01.013

Cited by 31 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…This highlights a highly undesirable and noticeably opposite situation to European countries (e.g. Nordic nations and NW Spain), wherein newer homes display reduced radon relative to older counterparts 30,31 . This begs the question – what are North Americans doing so wrong (or what have Europeans done so right)?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Radon exposure is rising steadily within the modern North American residential environment, and is increasingly uniform across seasons

Stanley

Irvine

Jacques

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Human-made buildings can artificially concentrate radioactive radon gas of geologic origin, exposing occupants to harmful alpha particle radiation emissions that damage DNA and increase lung cancer risk. We examined how North American residential radon exposure varies by modern environmental design, occupant behaviour and season. 11,727 residential buildings were radon-tested using multiple approaches coupled to geologic, geographic, architectural, seasonal and behavioural data with quality controls. Regional residences contained 108 Bq/m3 geometric mean radon (min < 15 Bq/m3; max 7,199 Bq/m3), with 17.8% ≥ 200 Bq/m3. Pairwise analysis reveals that short term radon tests, despite wide usage, display limited value for establishing dosimetry, with precision being strongly influenced by time of year. Regression analyses indicates that the modern North American Prairie residential environment displays exceptionally high and worsening radon exposure, with more recent construction year, greater square footage, fewer storeys, greater ceiling height, and reduced window opening behaviour all associated with increased radon. Remarkably, multiple test approaches reveal minimal winter-to-summer radon variation in almost half of properties, with the remainder having either higher winter or higher summer radon. This challenges the utility of seasonal correction values for establishing dosimetry in risk estimations, and suggests that radon-attributable cancers are being underestimated.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Radon exposure is rising steadily within the modern North American residential environment, and is increasingly uniform across seasons

Stanley

Irvine

Jacques

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…The most recent recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) suggest an integrated approach for protection against Radon exposure in buildings and suggest that national authorities should impose a reference level as low as reasonably achievable (100 to 300 Bq•m −3 ), corresponding to an upper benchmark of about 10 mSv per year (ICRP Publication 126) [73]. In 2009, the report developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) defined that the limits of exposure to Radon gas in buildings should be decreased to 100 Bq•m −3 [88].…”

Section: Radon Exposure and Effective Dosementioning

confidence: 99%

Designing an Indoor Radon Risk Exposure Indicator (IRREI): An Evaluation Tool for Risk Management and Communication in the IoT Age

Lopes

Nunes

Curado

2021

IJERPH

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The explosive data growth in the current information age requires consistent new methodologies harmonized with the new IoT era for data analysis in a space–time context. Moreover, intuitive data visualization is a central feature in exploring, interpreting, and extracting specific insights for subsequent numerical data representation. This integrated process is normally based on the definition of relevant metrics and specific performance indicators, both computed upon continuous real-time data, considering the specificities of a particular application case for data validation. This article presents an IoT-oriented evaluation tool for Radon Risk Management (RRM), based on the design of a simple and intuitive Indoor Radon Risk Exposure Indicator (IRREI), specifically tailored to be used as a decision-making aid tool for building owners, building designers, and buildings managers, or simply as an alert flag for the problem awareness of ordinary citizens. The proposed methodology was designed for graphic representation aligned with the requirements of the current IoT age, i.e., the methodology is robust enough for continuous data collection with specific Spatio-temporal attributes and, therefore, a set of adequate Radon risk-related metrics can be extracted and proposed. Metrics are summarized considering the application case, taken as a case study for data validation, by including relevant variables to frame the study, such as the regulatory International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) dosimetric limits, building occupancy (spatial dimension), and occupants’ exposure periods (temporal dimension). This work has the following main contributions: (1) providing a historical perspective regarding RRM indicator evolution along time; (2) outlining both the formulation and the validation of the proposed IRREI indicator; (3) implementing an IoT-oriented methodology for an RRM indicator; and (4) a discussion on Radon risk public perception, undertaken based on the results obtained after assessment of the IRREI indicator by applying a screening questionnaire with a total of 873 valid answers.

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“…The specific radon prevention measures is usually a radon membrane over the entire base area of the building in combination with a passive radon sump system, activated at indoor radon concentrations above 100 Bq/m 3 . The assumed maximum level of indoor radon was 200 Bq/m 3 [39].…”

Section: Legal Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radon—The Element of Risk. The Impact of Radon Exposure on Human Health

Grzywa-Celińska

Krusiński

Mazur

et al. 2020

Toxics

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Lung cancer is a heterogeneous group of diseases with multifactorial aetiology. Smoking has been undeniably recognized as the main aetiological factor in lung cancer, but it should be emphasized that it is not the only factor. It is worth noting that a number of nonsmokers also develop this disease. Radon exposure is the second greatest risk factor for lung cancer among smokers—after smoking—and the first one for nonsmokers. The knowledge about this element amongst specialist oncologists and pulmonologists seems to be very superficial. We discuss the impact of radon on human health, with particular emphasis on respiratory diseases, including lung cancer. A better understanding of the problem will increase the chance of reducing the impact of radon exposure on public health and may contribute to more effective prevention of a number of lung diseases.

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Significant reduction in indoor radon in newly built houses

Cited by 31 publications

References 9 publications

Radon exposure is rising steadily within the modern North American residential environment, and is increasingly uniform across seasons

Radon exposure is rising steadily within the modern North American residential environment, and is increasingly uniform across seasons

Designing an Indoor Radon Risk Exposure Indicator (IRREI): An Evaluation Tool for Risk Management and Communication in the IoT Age

Radon—The Element of Risk. The Impact of Radon Exposure on Human Health

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