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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...

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Autores principales: Chen, Jing, Bergman, Lauren, Falcomer, Renato, Whyte, Jeff
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2015
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.
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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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