Studies of underground miners have provided a wealth of data about the risk of lung cancer from exposure to radon's progeny elements, but the application of the miner data to the home environment is not straightforward. In Comparative Dosimetry of Radon in Mines and Homes, an expert committee uses a new dosimetric model to extrapolate to the home environment the risk relationships found in the miner studies. Important new scaling factors are developed for applying risk estimates based on miner data to men, women, and children in domestic environments. The book includes discussions of radon dosimetry and the uncertainties concerning other risk factors such as age and smoking habits. The book also contains a thorough technical discussion of the characteristics of radioactive aerosols in domestic environments, the dose of inhaled radon progeny to different age groups, identification of respiratory tract cells at the greatest risk of carcinogenesis, and a complete description of the new lung dose model being developed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection as modified by this committee.

This book describes hazards from radon progeny and other alpha-emitters that humans may inhale or ingest from their environment. In their analysis, the authors summarize in one document clinical and epidemiological evidence, the results of animal studies, research on alpha-particle damage at the cellular level, metabolic pathways for internal alpha-emitters, dosimetry and microdosimetry of radionuclides deposited in specific tissues, and the chemical toxicity of some low-specific-activity alpha-emitters. Techniques for estimating the risks to humans posed by radon and other internally deposited alpha-emitters are offered, along with a discussion of formulas, models, methods, and the level of uncertainty inherent in the risk estimates.

This chapter reviews recent developments in modeling doses received by lung tissues, with particular emphasis on application of ICRPs̀ new dosimetric model of the respiratory tract for extrapolating to other environments the established risks from exposure to radon progeny in underground mines. Factors discussed include: (1) the influence of physical characteristics of radon progeny aerosols on dose per unit exposure, e.g., the unattached fraction, and the activity-size distributions of clustered and attached progeny; (2) the dependence of dose on breathing rate, and on the exposed subject (man, woman or child); (3) the variability of dose per unit exposure in a home when exposure is expressed in terms of potential? energy or radon gas concentration; (4) the comparative dosimetry of thoron progeny; and (5) the effects of air-cleaning on lung dose. Also discussed is the apparent discrepancy between lung cancer risk estimates derived purely from dosimetry and the lung cancer incidence observed in the epidemiological studies of radon-exposed underground miners. Application of ICRPs̀ recommended risk factors appears to overestimate radon lung-cancer risk for miners by a factor of three. Ǹ̀ormalization ̀̀of the calculated effective dose is therefore needed, at least for? dose from radon and thoron progeny, in order to obtain a realistic estimate of lung cancer risk.

This book describes hazards from radon progeny and other alpha-emitters that humans may inhale or ingest from their environment. In their analysis, the authors summarize in one document clinical and epidemiological evidence, the results of animal studies, research on alpha-particle damage at the cellular level, metabolic pathways for internal alpha-emitters, dosimetry and microdosimetry of radionuclides deposited in specific tissues, and the chemical toxicity of some low-specific-activity alpha-emitters. Techniques for estimating the risks to humans posed by radon and other internally deposited alpha-emitters are offered, along with a discussion of formulas, models, methods, and the level of uncertainty inherent in the risk estimates.

This book evaluates recently published data related to the risk associated with human exposure to radon and radon progeny and assesses whether sufficient and appropriate new information is available to deem necessary a reassessment of health risks due to exposure to radon.