Cargando…

Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings

In December 2019, Spain considered for the first time the presence of radon to the Technical Building Code (Basic Document HS 6: Radon Exposure Protection), although it only mentions minimum presences and the need for ventilation. This research shows that in buried structures or in places with littl...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rizo-Maestre, Carlos, Echarri-Iribarren, Víctor
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7728375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255757
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238762
_version_ 1783621264193093632
author Rizo-Maestre, Carlos
Echarri-Iribarren, Víctor
author_facet Rizo-Maestre, Carlos
Echarri-Iribarren, Víctor
author_sort Rizo-Maestre, Carlos
collection PubMed
description In December 2019, Spain considered for the first time the presence of radon to the Technical Building Code (Basic Document HS 6: Radon Exposure Protection), although it only mentions minimum presences and the need for ventilation. This research shows that in buried structures or in places with little ventilation, even in soils with a low probability of granite, a high content of radon gas can be found. The city of Alicante has been used as a measurement location for different architectural sites; here, the level of 100 Bq/m(3) is the first threshold where the gas must be monitored, and the level of 300 Bq/m(3) is the maximum threshold above which corrective ventilation measures must be taken. The research conducted during the years 2015 and 2016 shows that it is necessary to account for also the areas considered to be “low presence of radon gas” to achieve healthy constructions. The renewal of air in the different places will be tested for the presence of radon, i.e., the greater the accumulation is, the less ventilation and the greater the risk of accumulation of radon gas. This study is located in the city of Alicante, where the seven civil constructions are located: two Civil War shelters, the Santa Barbara Castle, the Ereta Powder Keg, the Luceros-Marq and Serra Grossa railway tunnels and the Británica underground deposits. Radon gas is currently a concern for major health and medical agencies because it is considered to be a chemical element that is very harmful to people. The World Health Organization is one of the organisations that has the objective of studying and researching this element, to develop solutions. Radon gas is normally found in a gaseous state and is highly radioactive. It is present in many terrains and it is mostly found in those with granite; although the presence of this element is very low, there is always a minimum presence. In the past, in nongranite soils, the dose of radon was considered to be so low that it was insignificant. Therefore, in this research, the aim is to consider the high presence of radon gas in nongranite soils as long as the conditions for its accumulation are present.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7728375
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77283752020-12-11 Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings Rizo-Maestre, Carlos Echarri-Iribarren, Víctor Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In December 2019, Spain considered for the first time the presence of radon to the Technical Building Code (Basic Document HS 6: Radon Exposure Protection), although it only mentions minimum presences and the need for ventilation. This research shows that in buried structures or in places with little ventilation, even in soils with a low probability of granite, a high content of radon gas can be found. The city of Alicante has been used as a measurement location for different architectural sites; here, the level of 100 Bq/m(3) is the first threshold where the gas must be monitored, and the level of 300 Bq/m(3) is the maximum threshold above which corrective ventilation measures must be taken. The research conducted during the years 2015 and 2016 shows that it is necessary to account for also the areas considered to be “low presence of radon gas” to achieve healthy constructions. The renewal of air in the different places will be tested for the presence of radon, i.e., the greater the accumulation is, the less ventilation and the greater the risk of accumulation of radon gas. This study is located in the city of Alicante, where the seven civil constructions are located: two Civil War shelters, the Santa Barbara Castle, the Ereta Powder Keg, the Luceros-Marq and Serra Grossa railway tunnels and the Británica underground deposits. Radon gas is currently a concern for major health and medical agencies because it is considered to be a chemical element that is very harmful to people. The World Health Organization is one of the organisations that has the objective of studying and researching this element, to develop solutions. Radon gas is normally found in a gaseous state and is highly radioactive. It is present in many terrains and it is mostly found in those with granite; although the presence of this element is very low, there is always a minimum presence. In the past, in nongranite soils, the dose of radon was considered to be so low that it was insignificant. Therefore, in this research, the aim is to consider the high presence of radon gas in nongranite soils as long as the conditions for its accumulation are present. MDPI 2020-11-25 2020-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7728375/ /pubmed/33255757 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238762 Text en © 2020 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
Rizo-Maestre, Carlos
Echarri-Iribarren, Víctor
Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings
title Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings
title_full Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings
title_fullStr Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings
title_full_unstemmed Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings
title_short Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings
title_sort radon gas in the city of alicante. high risk of low indoor air quality in poorly ventilated buildings
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7728375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255757
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238762
work_keys_str_mv AT rizomaestrecarlos radongasinthecityofalicantehighriskoflowindoorairqualityinpoorlyventilatedbuildings
AT echarriiribarrenvictor radongasinthecityofalicantehighriskoflowindoorairqualityinpoorlyventilatedbuildings