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Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada
Radon has been identified as the second leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking. (222)Rn (radon gas) and (220)Rn (thoron gas) are the most common isotopes of radon. In order to assess thoron contribution to indoor radon and thoron exposure, a survey of residential radon and thoron concent...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4312419/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24748485 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncu141 |
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author | Chen, Jing Bergman, Lauren Falcomer, Renato Whyte, Jeff |
author_facet | Chen, Jing Bergman, Lauren Falcomer, Renato Whyte, Jeff |
author_sort | Chen, Jing |
collection | PubMed |
description | Radon has been identified as the second leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking. (222)Rn (radon gas) and (220)Rn (thoron gas) are the most common isotopes of radon. In order to assess thoron contribution to indoor radon and thoron exposure, a survey of residential radon and thoron concentrations was initiated in 2012 with ∼4000 homes in the 33 census metropolitan areas of Canada. The survey confirmed that indoor radon and thoron concentrations are not correlated and that thoron concentrations cannot be predicted from widely available radon information. The results showed that thoron contribution to the radiation dose varied from 0.5 to 6 % geographically. The study indicated that, on average, thoron contributes ∼3 % of the radiation dose due to indoor radon and thoron exposure in Canada. Even though the estimated average thoron concentration of 9 Bq m(−3) (population weighted) in Canada is low, the average radon concentration of 96 Bq m(−3) (population weighted) is more than double the worldwide average indoor radon concentration. It is clear that continued efforts are needed to further reduce the exposure and effectively reduce the number of lung cancers caused by radon. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4312419 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-43124192015-02-24 Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada Chen, Jing Bergman, Lauren Falcomer, Renato Whyte, Jeff Radiat Prot Dosimetry Papers Radon has been identified as the second leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking. (222)Rn (radon gas) and (220)Rn (thoron gas) are the most common isotopes of radon. In order to assess thoron contribution to indoor radon and thoron exposure, a survey of residential radon and thoron concentrations was initiated in 2012 with ∼4000 homes in the 33 census metropolitan areas of Canada. The survey confirmed that indoor radon and thoron concentrations are not correlated and that thoron concentrations cannot be predicted from widely available radon information. The results showed that thoron contribution to the radiation dose varied from 0.5 to 6 % geographically. The study indicated that, on average, thoron contributes ∼3 % of the radiation dose due to indoor radon and thoron exposure in Canada. Even though the estimated average thoron concentration of 9 Bq m(−3) (population weighted) in Canada is low, the average radon concentration of 96 Bq m(−3) (population weighted) is more than double the worldwide average indoor radon concentration. It is clear that continued efforts are needed to further reduce the exposure and effectively reduce the number of lung cancers caused by radon. Oxford University Press 2015-02 2014-04-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4312419/ /pubmed/24748485 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncu141 Text en © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Papers Chen, Jing Bergman, Lauren Falcomer, Renato Whyte, Jeff Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada |
title | Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada |
title_full | Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada |
title_fullStr | Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada |
title_full_unstemmed | Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada |
title_short | Results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of Canada |
title_sort | results of simultaneous radon and thoron measurements in 33 metropolitan areas of canada |
topic | Papers |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4312419/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24748485 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncu141 |
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