English

Exposure to high concentrations of radon (222Rn) progeny produces lung cancer in both undergroundminers and experimentally exposed laboratory animals. The goal of the study was to determinewhether or not residential radon exposure exhibits a statistically significant association with lungcancer in a state with high residential radon concentrations.A population-based, case-control epidemiologic study was conducted examining the relationshipbetween residential radon gas exposure and lung cancer in Iowa females who occupied their currenthome for at least 20 years.

The use of contemporary radon (222Rn) gas concentrations to estimate retrospective radon-relateddoses can introduce substantial uncertainties in epidemiological analyses. These uncertainties tend tobias the results of radon-lung cancer epidemiologic studies towards the null. Temporal variability ofradon progeny over past decades and the variability in the dose effectiveness of airborne radonprogeny caused by indoor atmospheric differences are among the main sources of uncertainties in ourregion.

Different aspects of the geogenic radon potential in a coal mining area in south-western Germany arediscussed. Due to the rather low specific radium activities of rocks and soils varying between 10 and70 Bq/kg a low geogenic radon potential can be expected. Radon concentrations in soil gas inabandoned mining areas are characterized by a lognormal distribution with a median value of 20kBq/m3. In the neighboring area with deep mining generally younger than two years, radon contentsincrease up to a median value of 38 kBq/m3.

The aim of this study is to develop a new technique for reducing high radon level in indoor air bymethod of membrane permeation using a hollow fiber module. The experiment has been carried outfor MERASILOX-S module of fine hollow fibers of silicon rubber that has high permeability constantand MHF hollow fiber module made of thin segment polyurethane membrane. The radon permeabilityconstants of hollow fiber membranes have been estimated from the decrease rate of radonconcentration in a radon permeation system.

In order to characterise the behaviour of radon decay products under domestic conditions, long-termmeasurements were carried out from May 1997 to April 1998 in a typical dwelling located in Brittany(France). In particular, the unattached fraction and equilibrium factor were continuously measured.Moreover, the size distributions of unattached and attached radon daughters were investigated byusing specific instruments implemented in the laboratory. All these experiments were carried outunder different typical aerosol conditions.

High radon concentration in work and living places are caused by a high geological radon potentialof the soil , by technological processes, the use of building materials with high uranium, thoriumand radium content and the building construction. Further the influence of the working and living conditions on the dose estimation is very important. Especially the equilibrium factor and the unattached fraction are influenced by the working and living conditions.

Cluj Napoca City is the most important city from northwestern part of Romania, having about 350,000inhabitants. The Somes river, also the most important river of this country region crosses the city fromwest to east, but before it crosses a granite massive, named Maguri-Racatau, a region located at 35Km on the upper part of this water course. The first indicators of a possible radon prone area for Cluj-Napoca city and its neighboring was the water radon concentration from the old power supply of thecity with about 37 Bq/L (1nCi/L).

The object of this study is to measure radon concentrations, both in the soil and buildings of the JRCIspra, in order to compile a radon map indicating areas with low, medium and high concentrations.The monitoring is being performed following the recommendations for the implementation of TitleVII of the European Basic Safety Standards Directive (BSS) concerning significant increase inexposure due to natural radiation sources. For measuring radon both passive and active methods arebeing used. The passive method is a passive track detector in Karlsruhe beakers.

Coals mined in some regions of the Transdanubian Middle Mountains in Hungary have elevatedconcentrations of 226Ra. The slags and ashes derived from these coals have been used as buildingmaterial for schools and kindergartens. As the 226Ra reached up in these waste products of coal-firingsystems, the gamma dose contribution in the buildings, which contained them, was calculated.

A large-scale radon survey has been carried out from 1995 to 1998 in southern Greece, in order toestimate the radon concentration in Greek dwellings and the exposure of the Greek population toradon. The design was administratively orientated. The statistical criterion for the selection ofsampling locations and the distribution of radon dosimeters was the percentage of dwellings of eachlevel of the administratively classifications in respect to the above level. This way of distributionassured that all the inhabited geographical regions were covered.