Survey of indoor radon (Rn-222) entry and concentrations in different types of building in Kalisz, Poland
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Survey of indoor radon (Rn‑222) entry and concentrations in different types of building in Kalisz, Poland H. Bem1 · S. Janiak1 · B. Przybył1 Received: 2 July 2020 / Accepted: 13 September 2020 / Published online: 10 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Indoor radon (222Rn) was surveyed in a total of 141 individual houses and apartments used precalibrated passive PicoRad Detectors. The radon activity in the soil gas around the dwellings was simultaneously measured. The arithmetic mean values of indoor radon concentrations for detached houses, old buildings (up to four-stories), prefabricated blocks of flats (mostly five stories) and high-rise residential buildings (10-stories) were:, 70.9; 46.5; 38.4, and 56.6 Bq m−3, respectively. The average arithmetic mean value for all measured rooms equals 51.8 Bq m−3. The calculated average effective dose from indoor radon for the local population was equal to 2.2 mSv. Keywords Indoor radon concentrations · Pico rad detectors · Effective doses
Introduction Large scale epidemiological case–control studies with subsequent individual data analysis from 13 European teams showed a linear growth of the cumulative risk of death from lung cancer with an increase in indoor radon concentration [1]. For the practical implementation of a radon protection strategy, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommended an integrated approach for protection against radon exposure in all buildings, irrespective of their purpose or the status of their occupants. It also introduced an upper value of the derived reference level of 300 Bq m−3 for 222Rn in dwellings [2]. A similar approach was proposed in the EU (European Union) Commission’s recommendations. Under the national action plan, Member States should promote action to identify dwellings with radon concentrations (as an annual average) exceeding this reference level [3]. Moreover, the Commission strongly * H. Bem [email protected] S. Janiak s.janiak@pwsz‑kalisz.edu.pl B. Przybył [email protected] 1
The President Stanislaw, Wojciechowski State University of Applied Sciences in Kalisz, ul. Nowy Świat 4, 62‑800 Kalisz, Poland
encourages national authorities to set a national derived radon reference level as low as reasonably achievable in the range of 100–300 Bq m−3. However, due to new epidemiological findings and the application of dosimetric models, the ICRP now suggests using nominal probability coefficients for radon exposure that are larger by a factor of almost 2 than in the former ICRP and UNSCEAR recommendations [4]. This approach leads to the doubling of the risk per unit exposure as a result of it also doubling the dose coefficients from 9 × 10−6 to 16.8 × 10−6 mSv Bq−1 h−1 m3. Thus, an identical radon exposure situation with the new dose coefficients would result in a doubling of doses compared with the former values. This has serious conceptual implications and is still being discussed [5]. Moreover, taking into account the new dose conversion factor for an annual indoor occupancy of
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