Mapping of Residential Radon in

the World

Jan M. ZielinskiHealth 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

The 1st Meeting of National Experts for WHO's International Radon

Project

Geneva, January 2005

World Health OrganizationWorld Health Organization

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 Bqm-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.

G. Dubois. An Overview of Radon Surveys in Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publication of the

European Communities; 2005; ISBN: 92-79-01066-2.

Country Estimated annual mean

levels (Bq/m3) Country

Estimated annual mean

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

In 2005 we developed proposal for residential radon survey in South America

Analia C. CanobaR. William FieldLuis Santiago QuindosDaniel SteckLene VeigaJan M. Zielinski

Estimated budget: $ 6,200,000 over 4 years

Country Contact

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

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

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

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

Jorge Gamarra

Comisión Chilena de Energía Nuclear

Jefe Sección Dosimetría

Amunategui 95 - Casilla 188-D -CHILE

E-mail: jgamarra@cchen.cl

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

Dr. Virginia Romero de Gonzalez

Comisión Nacional de Energia Atomica - Paraguay

E-mail:cnea@sce.cnc.una.py

Suzana Gonzáles

Instituto Peruano de Energia Nuclear

E-mail: sgonzales@ipen.gob.pe

Dr. Sylvia Fascioli

Dirección Nacional de Tecnologia Nuclear - Uruguay

E-mail: dntncoop@adinet.com.uy

Dr. Angel Dias Aponte

Ministério de Energia y Minas

E-mail: adiaz@mem.gov.ve

Uruguay

Venezuela

Chile

Equador

Paraguay

Peru

Argentina

Brazil

Bolivia

Colombia

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)

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

List of Countries and Rn data availability by continent*

(Countries with red color highlighted mean Rn data are available and mapped)

Summary statisticsNo. of Countries No. of Countries % Countries with

(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

Continent

Design Options

• Static Maps

• Web Based Clickable Maps

• Google Earth Dynamic Maps

Statics Maps

Statics Maps

Statics Maps

Statics Maps

http://www.mclaughlincentre.ca/research/map.shtmlhttp://www.mclaughlincentre.ca/research/map.shtm

Web Based Clickable Maps

http://www.mclaughlincentre.ca/research/map.shtml

Google Earth Dynamic Maps

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

Country NameWHO

CodeISO AM GM GSD

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.