Radon: exploring the log-normal mystery

Soil gas (222Rn, CO2, 4He) behaviour over a natural CO2 accumulation, Montmiral area (Drôme, France): geographical, geological and temporal relationships

“…Nevertheless, as recently pointed out by Bossew (2010) in his review, the fact that some statistical tests did not suggest a lognormal distribution does not imply that the data are not log-normal. As a consequence, it will be later postulated that both 222 Rn and CO 2 datasets are close to log-normal distribution when defining anomalous thresholds.…”

The use of mapped geology as a predictor of radon potential in Norway

“…2. Indoor radon concentrations are known to follow an approximately log-normal distribution (Bossew, 2010); statistical tests are therefore typically performed on the logarithm of the radon concentrations, and geometrical means are a more appropriate measure of average indoor radon concentration. The distribution of the natural logarithm of indoor radon concentrations is shown in Fig.…”

Radon in Air and Water

“…Because the factors that influence radon concentrations in buildings are largely independent and multiplicative, the distribution of radon concentrations is usually lognormal, so lognormal modeling can be used to produce accurate estimates of the proportion of homes above a reference level (Miles, 1998) (Bossew, 2010), although other transformations have also been investigated (Murphy and Organo, 2008). In the UK, radon maps were used to show the fraction of the housing stock above the action level in each 5-km grid square ( Figure 5) (Lomas et al, 1996).…”