Comparative Dosimetry of Radon in Mines and Homes (1991) / Chapter Skim
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Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations
Pages 1-8
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This report compares relations in the home and mining environments between exposure to radon progeny and the dose of alpha radiation to target cells in the respiratory epithelium. A dosimetric model is used to estimate the quantitative uncertainty introduced by differences in exposure-dose relations for miners and the general population who are exposed in their homes (Chapter 31.
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The committee's findings on the differences in exposure-dose relations in mines and in homes are expressed as a ratio, termed K in the BEIR IV report (NRC, 19881. This ratio represents the quotient of the dose of alpha energy delivered per unit exposure to an individual in the home to the dose per unit exposure to a male miner in a mine.
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Using a dosimetric model, the committee comprehensively compared exposure-dose relations for mining and home environments. The committee's calculations indicate that the dose of alpha energy per unit exposure delivered to target cells in the respiratory tract tends to be lower for the home environment by about 30% for adults of both sexes and by 20% or less for infants and children.
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Nevertheless, because the uncertainties associated with these factors are potentially large, the committee synthesized the available evidence on sex, age at exposure and age at risk, exposure rate, cigarette smoking, and agents that cause epithelial injury and promote cell turnover. The BEIR IV report (NRC, 1988)
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The dosimetric modeling in this report suggests that the BEIR IV committee's risk assessments based on the data from miners may have overestimated to some extent the numbers of radon-associated cases of lung cancer in the general population. However, the degree of overestimation is not large.
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· Additional research should be undertaken to determine whether different histologic types of bronchogenic lung cancer result from different genetic changes in a common bronchial stem cell precursor or from transformation of different types of bronchial cells. For example, further research is needed to determine whether undifferentiated small-cell carcinomas of the lung arise from
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· More information is needed on the hygroscopicity of radon progeny aerosols, on the degree to which they increase in size within the respiratory tract, on the time taken for any growth to occur, and on the effects of hygroscopic growth on deposition within the bronchial airways. Estimates of the filtration efficiency of the nasal and oral passageways for unattached radon progeny that have been developed from studies with hollow casts need to be confirmed by in viva measurements of extrathoracic filtration in sufficient numbers of human subjects.
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From page 8... ...
BEIR IV. Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation.
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