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Risk communication efforts to mitigate the second cause of lung cancer worldwide (after tobacco smoking)the radioactive gas radon in buildingsare often ineffective. Therefore, new European legal requirements bind member states to prepare communication strategies to ' … increase public awareness and inform local decision makers, employers and employees of the risks of radon … ' (Council directive 2013/59/EURATOM, ANNEX XVIII/(10)). This manifesto is written to support states to prepare an effective and efficient communication strategy and to avoid the main pitfalls in radon communication. It is based on the discussions that took place at a Workshop on Radon Risk Communication, organized by the German Federal Office of Radiation Protection (BfS) and hosted by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies IASS in Potsdam, Germany from 8 to 10 of October 2019. The authors present a strategic view on the concrete measures that may be taken by authorities, experts and scientists to communicate the risk of radon to human health and to promote radon protection actions more effectively.

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The inhalation of (222) Rn (radon) decay products is one of the most important reasons for lung cancer after smoking. Stony building materials are an important source of indoor radon. This article describes the determination of the exhalation rate of stony construction materials by the use of commercially available measuring devices in combination with VOC emission test chambers. Five materials - two types of clay brick, clinker brick, light-weight concrete brick, and honeycomb brick - generally used for wall constructions were used for the experiments. Their contribution to real room concentrations was estimated by applying room model parameters given in ISO 16000-9, RP 112, and AgBB. This knowledge can be relevant, if for instance indoor radon concentration is limited by law. The test set-up used here is well suited for application in test laboratories dealing with VOC emission testing.

<p>Depending on their concentration, naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) used for the construction of walls in living rooms may contribute elevated levels of radiation exposure for inhabitants. The main path of exposure by building materials is thought to be due to gamma radiation of <sup>40</sup>K and the progenies of the <sup>238</sup>U and <sup>232</sup>Th decay chains. Many efforts have been focused on developing computational methodologies to evaluate and predict the indoor gamma dose rate. Those studies investigated factors such as concrete density or wall thickness of the material as well as factors relating to the dimensions of the room with respect to gamma ray exposure.</p><p>Here, we re-implemented a well-established room model (Mustonen, 1984). This model approximates the gamma ray exposure at any point in a model room by accounting for the source strength, radiation absorption by concrete including build-up factors and the 1/r<sup>2</sup> decrease due to the distance to the source. The results of our re-implemented model compare well with other models, which focus on the radiation exposure in the midpoint of the room. In addition to concrete density and wall thickness, we focus our investigation on a non-homogenous distribution of NORM in walls, ceiling and floors. We compare different configurations of NORM distributions with respect to the radiation exposure in the room centre and with the average received within the room at a height of 1.25m.</p><p>References:</p><p>Mustonen, R. (1984). Methods for evaluation of radiation from building materials. Radiation Protection Dosimetry 7, 235-238.</p><p> </p>