Indoor concentrations of radon 222 and its daughters: sources, range, and environmental influences
The author here reviews what is presently known about factors affecting indoor concentrations of radon 222 and its daughters. In US single-family homes, radon concentrations are found to average about 1.5 pCi/1, but substantially higher concentrations occur frequently: perhaps a million US homes have concentrations exceeding 8 pCi/1 (from which occupants receive radiation doses comparable to those now experienced by uranium miners). The major contributor to indoor radon is ordinary soil underlying homes, with this radon being transported indoors primarily by the slight depressurization that occurs toward the bottom of a house interior (due to indoor-outdoor temperature differences and winds). Water from underground sources contributes significantly in a minority of cases, primarily residences with private wells, with public water supplies contributing only a few percent of indoor radon, even when drawn from wells. The strong variability in indoor concentrations is associated primarily with variability in the amount of radon entering homes from these various sources, and secondarily with differences in ventilation rates. However, for a given entry rate, the ventilation rate is the key determinant of indoor concentrations. Human doses are also influenced strongly by the chemical behavior of the daughters (i.e., decay products of radon), and considerable progress has been made recently in investigating a major aspect of this behavior, i.e., the manner in which daughters attach to airborne particles, to walls, and - indeed - to the lining of the lung itself, where the key radiation dose occurs.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 5099857
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-19346; CONF-8410136-1; ON: DE86000615
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 7. ORNL life sciences symposium on indoor-air and human health: major indoor air pollutant and their health implications, Knoxville, TN, USA, 29 Oct 1984
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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DAUGHTER PRODUCTS
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HOUSES
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NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY
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500300* - Environment
Atmospheric- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)