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Mapping of Residential Radon in

the World
Jan M. Zielinski
Health Canada and Department of Epidemiology and Community
Medicine, University of Ottawa

Poços de Caldas
20 May, 2014
Outline
• World Health Organization
International Radon Project
• Sources of data
• Data Quality Objecives (DQO)
• Design Options
• Conclusions
World Health Organization
The 1st Meeting of National Experts for WHO's International Radon
Project

Geneva, January 2005


World Health Organization
International Radon Project (2005)
• Identify effective strategies for reducing the health impact
of radon;
• Promote sound policy options, prevention and mitigation
programs to national authorities;
• Raise public and political awareness about the consequences of
exposure to radon;
• Raise the awareness of financial institutions supplying home
mortgages to the potential impact of elevated radon levels on
property values;
• Monitor and periodically review mitigation measures to ensure
their effectiveness;
• Estimate the global health impact of exposure to residential
radon and so allow resources to be allocated effectively to
mitigate the health impact of radon; and
• Create a global database of residential radon exposures at
national (regional) levels.
Sources of data
• Existing Data: UNSCEAR 2006
• New Data: WHO Survey
• Literature Search for keywords: radon,
indoor, environmental and survey
• Internet Search for keywords: radon,
indoor, environmental and survey
• Data Generation: South American Radon
Mapping Initiative
UNSCEAR Surveys
• UNSCEAR has conducted
three surveys of the
natural radiation
environment in 2001, 2004
and 2006 and the data on
radon are reflected in the
UNSCEAR 2006 Report:
“Annex E, Sources-to-
effects Assessment for
Radon in Workplaces and
Homes”
UNSCEAR 2000 reported (national) worldwide arithmetic mean values
of 46 Bq m 3 (unweighted) and 39 Bq m 3 (population weighted).
Worldwide, geometric mean values of 37 Bq m 3 (unweighted) and 30 Bq
m-3 (population weighted) with corresponding geometric standard
deviation of 2.2 (unweighted) and 2.3 (population weighted).

Given the wide variety and disparity of data currently available to


UNSCEAR, UNSCEAR 2006 considered that the national average values
reported in UNSCEAR 2000 remained reasonable.

In our research, we have attempted to update and validate the national


and global average radon levels using currently available data
No Country No Country
1. Argentina 17. Japan
2. Austria 18. Korea South
3. Belgium 19. Kyrgyzstan
4. Bulgaria 20. Latvia
5. Brazil 21. Lithuania
6. Canada 22. Netherlands
7. China 23. Norway
8. Czech Republic 24. Peru
9. Ecuador 25. Romania
10. Finland 26. Russia
11. France 27. Slovenia
12. Georgia 28. Spain
13. Germany 29. Sweden
14. Greece 30. Switzerland
15. Ireland 31. UK
16. Italy 32. USA
2007 Literature Search for keywords:
radon, indoor, environmental and survey
• The MEDLINE search returned 992 references, from
which 87 were retained as contributing information
about national/regional indoor radon levels.

• In addition, from a search of tables of content of


Radiation Protection Dosimetry (keywords: indoor,
environmental, radon, survey), some 300 items were
identified and 103 were retained as contributing
information about national/regional indoor radon levels.

• A similar search of tables of content of Radiation


Measurements returned 11 relevant references out of
102 initially identified.
Estimated annual mean Estimated annual mean
Country Country
levels (Bq/m3) levels (Bq/m3)
Albania NA Latvia NA
Austria 97 Lithuania 55
Belgium 48 Luxembourg 115
Croatia 68 Malta 40
Cyprus 19 Netherlands 23
Czech Republic 140 Norway 89
Denmark 53 Poland 49
Estonia 60 Portugal NA
Finland 120 Romania 45
France 63 Serbia-Montenegro* 144
FYROM NA Slovakia 108
Germany 50 Slovenia 87
Greece 55 Spain 90
Hungary NA Sweden 108
Ireland 89 Switzerland 77
Italy 70 United Kingdom 20

G. Dubois. An Overview of Radon Surveys in Europe.


Luxembourg: Office for Official Publication of the
European Communities; 2005; ISBN: 92-79-01066-2.
In 2005 we developed proposal
for residential radon survey in
South America

Analia C. Canoba
R. William Field
Luis Santiago Quindos
Daniel Steck
Lene Veiga
Jan M. Zielinski

Estimated budget:
$ 6,200,000 over 4 years
Country Contact
Argentina Lic. Analia Canoba
Gerencia Apoyo Cientifico
Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear - Centro Atomico Ezeiza
Tel: 54-11-6-779-8363
Fax: 54-11-6-779-8460
E-mail: acanoba@cae.arn.gov.ar
Brazil Dr Lene Veiga
Institute of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry, IRD - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tel: 55 21 3411-8089
Fax: 55 21 2442-2699
mailto:lene@ird.gov.Br
Bolivia Dr. Alberto Miranda Cuadros
Instituto Boliviano de Ciencia y Tecnología Nuclear
Av. 6 de Agosto No. 2905 - Casilla 4821 - BOLIVIA
Tel: + 59 12 433481
Fax: + 59 12 433063
e-mail: ibten@caoba.entelnet.bo
Colombia Dr. Jorge Ignacio Vallejo Mejia
Ministerio de Minas y Energía
Av. El Dorado - CAN - Oficina 403 - COLOMBIA
TE: + 57 1 3245242
Fax: + 57 1 3245241
e-mail: asesornuclear@col.net.co
Chile Jorge Gamarra
Comisión Chilena de Energía Nuclear
Jefe Sección Dosimetría
Amunategui 95 - Casilla 188-D -CHILE
E-mail: jgamarra@cchen.cl
Equador Ing. José Carrion Arguello
Comisión Equatoriana de Energia Atomica
Calle Juan Larrea 534 y Riofrío - Casilla 17-01-2517 - ECUADOR
Tel + 593 2 225 166/545 861/773/649
Fax: + 593 2 563 336
e-mail: comecen1@comecenat.gov.ec
Paraguay Dr. Virginia Romero de Gonzalez
Comisión Nacional de Energia Atomica - Paraguay
E-mail:cnea@sce.cnc.una.py
Peru Suzana Gonzáles
Instituto Peruano de Energia Nuclear
E-mail: sgonzales@ipen.gob.pe
Uruguay Dr. Sylvia Fascioli
Dirección Nacional de Tecnologia Nuclear - Uruguay
E-mail: dntncoop@adinet.com.uy
Venezuela Dr. Angel Dias Aponte
Ministério de Energia y Minas
E-mail: adiaz@mem.gov.ve
Data Quality Objecives (DQO)
• We first used the following evaluation order to classify
the reliability of the references: journal publication,
conference proceedings, internal reports, UNSCEAR
Surveys, WHO 2006 Survey, and personal communication.

• However, we realized that for the purpose of assessing


reliability of the national indoor radon levels the above
classification does not work well given that a lot of the
information has been published in ‘gray literature’ and some
of this literature is of very high quality. Therefore, for
the purpose of developing the global radon data-base, we
treated journal publications, conference proceedings, and
internal reports equally as long as they are publicly and
relatively easily available
ProCite Database of
References (with pdfs)
List of Countries and Rn data availability by continent*
(Countries with red color highlighted mean Rn data are available and mapped)

AFRICA (53) (3) ASIA (45) (17) EUROPE (46) (34) N. AMERICA (23) (4) OCEANIA (14) (2) S. AMERICA (12) (7)
Algeria Afghanistan Albania Antigua and Barbuda Australia Argentina
Angola Armenia Andorra Bahamas Fiji Bolivia
Benin Bahrain Austria Barbados Kiribati Brazil
Botswana Bangladesh Azerbaijan Belize Marshall Islands Chile
Burkina Bhutan Belarus Canada Micronesia Colombia
Burundi Brunei Belgium Costa Rica Nauru Ecuador
Cameroon Burma (Myanmar) Bosnia and Herzegovina Cuba New Zealand Guyana
Cape Verde Cambodia Bulgaria Dominica Palau Paraguay
Central African Republic China Croatia Dominican Rep. Papua New Guinea Peru
Chad Cyprus Czech Republic El Salvador Samoa Suriname
Comoros East Timor Denmark Grenada Solomon Islands Uruguay
Congo India Estonia Guatemala Tonga Venezuela
Congo (Dem. Rep.) Indonesia Finland Haiti Tuvalu
Djibouti Iran France Honduras Vanuatu
Egypt Iraq Georgia Jamaica
Equatorial Guinea Israel Germany Mexico
Eritrea Japan Greece Nicaragua
Ethiopia Jordan Hungary Panama
Gabon Kazakhstan Iceland St. Kitts & Nevis
Gambia Korea (north) Ireland St. Lucia
Ghana Korea (south) Italy St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Guinea Kuwait Latvia Trinidad & Tobago
Guinea-Bissau Kyrgyzstan Liechtenstein United States
Ivory Coast Laos Lithuania
Kenya Lebanon Luxembourg
Lesotho Malaysia Macedonia
Liberia Maldives Malta
Libya Mongolia Moldova
Madagascar Nepal Monaco
Malawi Oman Montenegro
Mali Pakistan Netherlands
Mauritania Philippines Norway
Mauritius Qatar Poland
Morocco Saudi Arabia Portugal
Mozambique Singapore Romania
Namibia Sri Lanka Russian Federation
Niger Syria San Marino
Nigeria Tajikistan Serbia
Rwanda Thailand Slovakia
Sao Tome and Principe Turkey Slovenia
Senegal Turkmenistan Spain
Seychelles United Arab Emirates Sweden
Sierra Leone Uzbekistan Switzerland
Somalia Vietnam Ukraine
South Africa Yemen United Kingdom
Sudan Vatican City
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Summary statistics
No. of Countries No. of Countries % Countries with
Continent
(Total) (Rn data available) (Rn data available)
Africa 53 3 6
Asia 45 17 38
Europe 46 34 74
N America 23 4 17
Oceania 14 2 14
S America 12 7 58
Total 193 67 35

Continent Total Population Population of Countries % Population with


with Rn data available Rn data available
Africa 904,305,412 128,999,490 14
Asia 3,893,470,170 3,314,703,215 85
Europe 742,491,636 663,052,098 89
N America 511,362,031 448,779,940 88
Oceania 33,105,457 25,078,384 76
S America 374,997,087 315,551,179 84
Total 6,459,731,793 4,896,164,306 76

Continent Total Surface Surface of Countries % Surface with


sqr km with Rn data available Rn data available
Africa 30,042,810 3,621,723 12
Asia 31,713,399 24,408,412 77
Europe 23,215,582 22,255,613 96
N America 22,300,343 21,668,763 97
Oceania 8,480,726 7,952,834 94
S America 17,730,252 14,938,952 84
Total 133,483,112 94,846,297 71
Design Options

• Static Maps
• Web Based Clickable Maps
• Google Earth Dynamic Maps
Statics Maps
Statics Maps
Statics Maps
Statics Maps
Web Based Clickable Maps

http://www.mclaughlincentre.ca/research/map.shtm
http://www.mclaughlincentre.ca/research/map.shtml
Google Earth Dynamic Maps

http://www.mclaughlincentre.ca/research/map.shtml
2013 Literature Search for keywords:
radon, indoor, environmental and survey
• The MEDLINE (which currently includes Radiation
Protection Dosimetry) search for publication published
after 2006 returned 567 references, from which 73
were retained as contributing information about
national/regional indoor radon levels.

• Search of tables of content of Radiation


Measurements returned 91 references, from which 20
were retained as contributing information about
national/regional indoor radon levels.
Updated National Radon Levels - 2013
WHO
Country Name ISO AM GM GSD
Code Updated
Japan 3160 JPN 16.0 13.0 1.8
Japan 3160 JPN 14.3 10.8 2.1 2013

South Korea 3325 KOR 53.4 43.3 1.8


South Korea 3325 KOR 62.1 49.0 1.9 2013

Canada 2090 CAN 28.4 11.2 3.9


Canada 2090 CAN 87.0 42.5 3.3 2013

Jordan 3170 JOR 56.7 2013

Macedonia 4195 MKD 105 84.0 1.9 2013

Turkey 3400 TUR 35.0 2013


Conclusions
The current maps have many deficiencies, but after
improvements and extensions, might provide a useful
means for United Nations Scientific Committee on the
Effects Of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), or Global
Burden of Disease (due to radon) project to facilitate
collection, review and communicate information about
the very important radon data it collects, and to
facilitate electronic updates of the database and
subsequently mapping of the data. Such a tool could be
extended over time to other sources of exposure.

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