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Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea

Long-term exposure to high radon concentration exerts pathological effects and elicits changes in respiratory function, increasing an individual’s risk of developing lung cancer. In health risk assessment of indoor radon, consideration of long-term exposure thereto is necessary to identify a relatio...

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Autores principales: Park, Ji Hyun, Lee, Cheol Min, Lee, Hyun Young, Kang, Dae Ryong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30326575
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102251
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author Park, Ji Hyun
Lee, Cheol Min
Lee, Hyun Young
Kang, Dae Ryong
author_facet Park, Ji Hyun
Lee, Cheol Min
Lee, Hyun Young
Kang, Dae Ryong
author_sort Park, Ji Hyun
collection PubMed
description Long-term exposure to high radon concentration exerts pathological effects and elicits changes in respiratory function, increasing an individual’s risk of developing lung cancer. In health risk assessment of indoor radon, consideration of long-term exposure thereto is necessary to identify a relationship between indoor radon exposure and lung cancer. However, measuring long-term indoor radon concentration can be difficult, and a statistical model for predicting mean annual indoor radon concentrations may be readily applicable. We investigated the predictability of mean annual radon concentrations using national data on indoor radon concentrations throughout the spring, summer, fall, and winter seasons in Korea. Indoor radon concentrations in Korea were highest in the winter and lowest in the summer. We derived seasonal correction and seasonal adjustment factors for each season based on the method proposed by previous study. However, these factors may not be readily applicable unless measured in a specific season. In this paper, we separate seasonal correction factors for each month of the year (new correction factors) based on correlations between indoor radon and meteorological factors according to housing type. To evaluate the correction factors, we assessed differences between estimated and measured mean annual radon concentrations. Roughly 97% of the estimated values were within ±40 Bq/m(3) of actual measured values in detached houses, and roughly 85–87% of the estimated values were within ±40 Bq/m(3) of the measured values in other residences. In most cases, the seasonal correction factors and the new correction factors had slightly better agreement than the seasonal adjustment factor. For predicting mean annual radon concentrations, the seasonal correction factors or seasonal adjustment factors can be of use when actual measurements of indoor radon concentrations for a specific season are available. Otherwise, the new correction factors may be more readily applicable.
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spelling pubmed-62104852018-11-02 Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea Park, Ji Hyun Lee, Cheol Min Lee, Hyun Young Kang, Dae Ryong Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Long-term exposure to high radon concentration exerts pathological effects and elicits changes in respiratory function, increasing an individual’s risk of developing lung cancer. In health risk assessment of indoor radon, consideration of long-term exposure thereto is necessary to identify a relationship between indoor radon exposure and lung cancer. However, measuring long-term indoor radon concentration can be difficult, and a statistical model for predicting mean annual indoor radon concentrations may be readily applicable. We investigated the predictability of mean annual radon concentrations using national data on indoor radon concentrations throughout the spring, summer, fall, and winter seasons in Korea. Indoor radon concentrations in Korea were highest in the winter and lowest in the summer. We derived seasonal correction and seasonal adjustment factors for each season based on the method proposed by previous study. However, these factors may not be readily applicable unless measured in a specific season. In this paper, we separate seasonal correction factors for each month of the year (new correction factors) based on correlations between indoor radon and meteorological factors according to housing type. To evaluate the correction factors, we assessed differences between estimated and measured mean annual radon concentrations. Roughly 97% of the estimated values were within ±40 Bq/m(3) of actual measured values in detached houses, and roughly 85–87% of the estimated values were within ±40 Bq/m(3) of the measured values in other residences. In most cases, the seasonal correction factors and the new correction factors had slightly better agreement than the seasonal adjustment factor. For predicting mean annual radon concentrations, the seasonal correction factors or seasonal adjustment factors can be of use when actual measurements of indoor radon concentrations for a specific season are available. Otherwise, the new correction factors may be more readily applicable. MDPI 2018-10-15 2018-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6210485/ /pubmed/30326575 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102251 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Park, Ji Hyun
Lee, Cheol Min
Lee, Hyun Young
Kang, Dae Ryong
Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea
title Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea
title_full Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea
title_fullStr Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea
title_full_unstemmed Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea
title_short Estimation of Seasonal Correction Factors for Indoor Radon Concentrations in Korea
title_sort estimation of seasonal correction factors for indoor radon concentrations in korea
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30326575
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102251
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