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.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
Summary and Recommendations
Introduction
Assessment of Exposure to the Decay Products of 222Rn in Mines and Homes
Extrapolation of Doses and Risk per Unit Exposure from Mines to Homes
Other Considerations
Dosimetry and Dosimetric Models for Inhaled Radon and Progeny
Aerosols in Homes and Mines
Breathing, Deposition, and Clearance
Cells of Origin for Lung Cancer
The Committee's Dosimetric Model for Radon and Thoron Progeny
Index