Predictions of lung cancer based on county averages for indoor radon versus the historic incidence of regional lung cancer

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:5890846

Mose, D G; Chrosniak, C E; Mushrush, G W ^[1]

---

1. George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States). Center for Basic and Applied Science

After a decade of effort to determine the health risk associated with indoor radon, the efforts of the US Environmental Protection Agency have prevailed in the US, and 4 pCi/1 is commonly used as an Action Level. Proposals by other groups supporting lower or higher Action Levels have failed, largely due to paucity of information supporting any particular level of indoor radon. The authors' studies have compared indoor radon for zip code and county size areas with parameters such as geology, precipitation and home construction. Their attempts to verify the relative levels of lung cancer using US-EPA estimates of radon-vs-cancer have not been supportive of the EPA risk estimates. In general, when they compare the number of lung cancer cases in particular geological or geographical areas with the indoor radon levels in that area, they find the EPA predicted number of lung cancer cases to exceed the total number of lung cancer cases from all causes. Comparisons show a correlation between the incidence of lung cancer and indoor radon, but the level of risk is about 1/10 that proposed by the US-EPA. Evidently the assumptions used in their studies are flawed. Even though they find lower risk estimates using many counties in several states, fundamental flaws must be present in this type of investigation. Care must be taken in presenting health risks to the general population in cases, such as in indoor radon, where field data do not support risk estimates obtained by other means.

• OSTI ID: 5890846
• Report Number(s): CONF-921058--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 24:7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

560161* -- Radionuclide Effects
Kinetics
& Toxicology-- Man
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AIR POLLUTION
BODY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DISEASES
ELEMENTS
EVALUATION
FLUIDS
GASES
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
LUNGS
MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE DOSE
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NEOPLASMS
NONMETALS
ORGANS
POLLUTION
RADIOINDUCTION
RADON
RARE GASES
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
RISK ASSESSMENT
SAFETY STANDARDS
STANDARDS
US EPA
US ORGANIZATIONS