Children’s Exposure to Radon in Nursery and Primary Schools

Abstract

The literature proves an evident association between indoor radon exposure and lung cancer, even at low doses. This study brings a new approach to the study of children’s exposure to radon by aiming to evaluate exposure to indoor radon concentrations in nursery and primary schools from two districts in Portugal (Porto and Bragança), considering different influencing factors (occupation patterns, classroom floor level, year of the buildings’ construction and soil composition of the building site), as well as the comparison with IAQ standard values for health protection. Fifteen nursery and primary schools in the Porto and Bragança districts were considered: five nursery schools for infants and twelve for pre-schoolers (seven different buildings), as well as eight primary schools. Radon measurements were performed continuously. The measured concentrations depended on the building occupation, classroom floor level and year of the buildings’ construction. Although they were in general within the Portuguese legislation for IAQ, exceedances to international standards were found. These results point out the need of assessing indoor radon concentrations not only in primary schools, but also in nursery schools, never performed in Portugal before this study. It is important to extend the study to other microenvironments like homes, and in time to estimate the annual effective dose and to assess lifetime health risks.

A Review of the Field on Children’s Exposure to Environmental Contaminants: A Risk Assessment Approach

“…However, the availability and the concept of housing and home differ greatly among developed and developing countries, and therefore time spent in homes and the exposures experienced will vary. The structure of the building envelope is a driver for outdoor infiltration, however the variety and use of indoor products will heavily determine the contaminant load indoors [15,16]. Regrettably, there is less control and understanding of the residential home environment due to these great variations, and there is restricted access for researchers and officials.…”

Prediction of long-term indoor radon concentration based on short-term measurements

“…Fur ther more, the house char ac ter is tics are de ter mined by many other fac tors other than the pres ence of base ment and build ing mate rial, which can not be ex pected to be "av er aged away" with only few sam ples. This il lus trates that apart from the sea sonal vari a tions, the in flu ence of some other fac tors re lated to char ac ter is tics such as age of the build ing [28,29], type of win dows [30], heat ing method [31], wall fin ish ing [32], num ber of floors [33] and ge ol ogy [34][35][36] should not be ig nored.…”

Children’s Exposure to Environmental Contaminants: An Editorial Reflection of Articles in the IJERPH Special Issue Entitled, “Children’s Exposure to Environmental Contaminants”

“…Two of those articles address exposure to radon gas where radon exposure entails a mechanistic action of daughter radon elements attaching to particles in the air which are then inhaled [3]. Branco et al, considers the structural, soil, and human use aspects of school and nursery buildings that may influence measured radon gas infiltration and therefore indoor radon concentrations and potential exposure for children in two districts of Portugal [4]. The authors find some exceedance of internal recommendations of indoor radon levels and emphasize that radon accumulation is a function of building occupancy, ventilation and movement, classroom floor level and the age of the building [4].…”

“…Branco et al, considers the structural, soil, and human use aspects of school and nursery buildings that may influence measured radon gas infiltration and therefore indoor radon concentrations and potential exposure for children in two districts of Portugal [4]. The authors find some exceedance of internal recommendations of indoor radon levels and emphasize that radon accumulation is a function of building occupancy, ventilation and movement, classroom floor level and the age of the building [4]. Peckham et al, considers a large retrospective epidemiological study to evaluate associations between indoor residential radon levels in the state of Texas and childhood lymphoma, finding low to no evidence in keeping with previous findings, as the authors indicate [5].…”