Radon transfer from groundwater used in showers to indoor air

Assessment of Beach sand using Gamma Ray Spectrometer in Thiruvanathapuram District, Kerala of South India

“…Radiation exposure due to building materials can be divided into external and internal exposure [8]. The external exposure is caused by direct gamma radiation, whereas internal exposure is caused by the inhalation of radon ( 222 Rn), thoron ( 220 Rn) and their short -lived decay products [9]. Owing to the health risks associated with the exposure to indoor radiation, many governmental and international bodies such as the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) have adopted measures to minimize such exposures [10].…”

Contribution of 222Rn-bearing water to indoor radon and indoor air quality assessment in hot spring hotels of Guangdong, China

“…Gesell and Prichard (1980) first estimated a 222 Rn transfer coefficient of 10 À4 , and NRC (1999) also recommended the best central estimate of 1.0 Â 10 À4 from multi-day tests in houses during normal occupancy. Recently, Vinson et al (2008) calculated a transfer coefficient of 1.65 Â 10 À3 in bathrooms during water use on short time scales. Our study found higher transfer coefficients in the hotel bathrooms due to the hot spring water use on multi-day measurements.…”

“…Many studies have been conducted on indoor air pollutants including indoor radon ( 222 Rn) (Denman et al, 2007;Espinosa et al, 2008;Tuia and Kanevski, 2008;Vinson et al, 2008;Ciolini and Mazed, 2010;Yoon et al, 2010), particulate matter and CO 2 (Jones et al, 2000;Korhonen et al, 2000;Isbell et al, 2002;Lee et al, 2002a;Michielsena and Tymen, 2007;Shao et al, 2007;Perrier and Richon, 2010;Wang et al, 2010). Recently, the Chinese Government has recognized the potential risks and problems related to indoor air pollution, and it has established the new IAQ standard (GB/T18883-2002, China).…”

“…Waters with higher 222 Rn levels are used in some health resorts for therapeutic purposes (Lettner et al, 1996;Nikolopoulos et al, 2010) on the theory of radiation hormesis, which refers to a curative effect of small doses of radiation. However, 222 Rn in hot spring water has also attracted attention for its potential health risks, since 222 Rn transferred from spring water to indoor air may bring about extra exposure to 222 Rn via inhalation (Horváth et al, 2000;Vinson et al, 2008), and the health risks of indoor elevated levels of 222 Rn have been well documented in a great many studies worldwide (Evans et al, 1981;Spengler and Sexton, 1983;Nero et al, 1986;ICRP, 1987ICRP, , 1993Clarke and Southwood, 1989;Yu et al, 1994Yu et al, , 2001Vogiannis et al, 2004;Vinson et al, 2008;Ouabi, 2009;Koz1owska et al, 2010). The 222 Rn concentration of hot spring water may lead to health risks from occupational (hot spring hotel workers) and occasional (tourists) exposure.…”

Radon transfer velocity at the water–air interface

“…It requires that the radon transfer velocity from water to air to be known so that better corrections are made to the values determined. Most of such studies use a "transfer coefficient" of about 10 -4 (Vinson et al, 2008 and references therein) which indicates the fraction of the radon in well water that enters the air in a house for typical use of water. This coefficient is linked to the factor that is measured in this paper but is clearly not the same object.…”