Radon Exposure

This handbook focuses on residential radon exposure from a public health point of view and provides detailed recommendations on reducing health risks from radon and sound policy options for preventing and mitigating radon exposure. The material in the handbook reflects the epidemiological evidence that indoor radon exposure is responsible for a substantial number of lung cancers in the general population. Information is provided on the selection of devices to measure radon levels and on procedures for the reliable measurement of these levels. Discussed also are control options for radon in new dwellings, radon reduction in existing dwellings as well as assessment of the costs and benefits of different radon prevention and remedial actions. Also covered are radon risk communication strategies and organization of national radon programs.--Publisher's description.

The Safe Drinking Water Act directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate the quality of drinking water, including its concentration of radon, an acknowledged carcinogen. This book presents a valuable synthesis of information about the total inhalation and ingestion risks posed by radon in public drinking water, including comprehensive reviews of data on the transfer of radon from water to indoor air and on outdoor levels of radon in the United States. It also presents a new analysis of a biokinetic model developed to determine the risks posed by ingestion of radon and reviews inhalation risks and the carcinogenesis process. The volume includes scenarios for quantifying the reduction in health risk that might be achieved by a program to reduce public exposure to radon. Risk Assessment of Radon in Drinking Water, reflecting research and analysis mandated by 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, provides comment on a variety of methods to reduce radon entry into homes and to reduce the concentrations of radon in indoor air and in water. The models, analysis, and reviews of literature contained in this book are intended to provide information that EPA will need to set a new maximum contaminant level, as it is required to do in 2000.

Naturally occurring radionuclides are found throughout the earth's crust, and they form part of the natural background of radiation to which all humans are exposed. Many human activities-such as mining and milling of ores, extraction of petroleum products, use of groundwater for domestic purposes, and living in houses-alter the natural background of radiation either by moving naturally occurring radionuclides from inaccessible locations to locations where humans are present or by concentrating the radionuclides in the exposure environment. Such alterations of the natural environment can increase, sometimes substantially, radiation exposures of the public. Exposures of the public to naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that result from human activities that alter the natural environment can be subjected to regulatory control, at least to some degree. The regulation of public exposures to such technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory and advisory organizations is the subject of this study by the National Research Council's Committee on the Evaluation of EPA Guidelines for Exposures to Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials.

In the recent past, studies on radon and their progenies have drawn a lot of attention from the scientific community and researchers, due to their crucial role as a possible cause of cancer, monitoring radiation levels of nuclear installations and as a potential precursor parameter to seismic events. This book titled "Radon: Detection, Exposure and Control" has 19 chapters comprising of research contributions from across the globe namely; Brazil, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Russia, Taiwan (PRC), Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and several regions of India including the seismic zone-V, the second highest seismic zone in the world. This book is very useful to scholars pursuing post-graduate studies and research covering broad areas of applied sciences namely; geophysics, Earth science, geoscience, geochemistry and civil & geotechnical engineering. This book provides a mixed flavour of the recent trends in several types of research works related to detection, exposure and control of Radon (Rn222, Rn220) in a concise and interesting manner. This book contains several chapters dedicated to the radon measurement based radioactivity studies in rocks, over kimberlite pipes, inside soil and in open environments. The book also describes indoor radon gas concentration studies in schools and other working places including the assessment of health risk associated with it including radon exposure, its measurement and protection. In addition to the influence of regional and geophysical characteristics on the volumetric activity of radon, this book also contains the radon-based biometric characterization of person identification. Review articles on a detailed study of fault traces in Taiwan using soil gas geochemistry and the role of radon as precursor to earthquake have also been discussed including psychological perspective of radon risk and remediation. I feel confident that this book shall be extremely useful to the research community of science and engineering streams at large and do hope that they will find it extremely helpful to understand the mechanism and to conceive research problems with potential applications.

This book evaluates recently published data related to the risk associated with human exposure to radon and radon progeny and assesses whether sufficient and appropriate new information is available to deem necessary a reassessment of health risks due to exposure to radon.

This book describes hazards from radon progeny and other alpha-emitters that humans may inhale or ingest from their environment. In their analysis, the authors summarize in one document clinical and epidemiological evidence, the results of animal studies, research on alpha-particle damage at the cellular level, metabolic pathways for internal alpha-emitters, dosimetry and microdosimetry of radionuclides deposited in specific tissues, and the chemical toxicity of some low-specific-activity alpha-emitters. Techniques for estimating the risks to humans posed by radon and other internally deposited alpha-emitters are offered, along with a discussion of formulas, models, methods, and the level of uncertainty inherent in the risk estimates.

In the book Radon, some segments of modern research from a wide range of issues related to radioactive gas radon are presented. The purpose of this book is to emphasize the importance of the existence of the radioactive gas radon in the environment and to make this natural phenomenon a top issue because radon is included in class A human carcinogenesis. The chapters of the book show physical and chemical properties of radon and radon progeny; concentration, emanation, and transport of radon in ambient environments; detection of radon and radon progeny in different environments; passive and active radon measurement techniques; and calibration of a dosimeter for the detection of radon. This book will be of great importance to scientists from a wide range of research area on the phenomenon of radon and will be useful to those who are beginners in this area as well. Due to the impact of radon gas on health, the content of this book will be interesting to a wider audience.