Building-specific factors affecting indoor radon concentration variations in different regions in Bulgaria

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the spatiality of the building factors’ effect on air quality through evaluation of indoor radon concentration in areas with different geology and geographical position. For that matter, a survey of indoor radon concentration was carried out in 174 kindergartens of three Bulgarian cities. The time-integrated measurements were performed in 777 ground floor rooms using alpha tract detectors, exposed for 3 months in cold period of 2014. The results of indoor radon concentrations vary from 20 to 1117 Bq/m3. The differences in the mean radon concentrations measured in the different cities were related to geology. The effect of building-specific factors: elevator, basement, mechanical ventilation, type of windows, number of floors, building renovation, building materials, type of room, type of heating, construction period, and availability of foundation on radon concentration variations was examined applying univariate and multivariate analysis. Univariate analysis showed that the effects of building-specific factors on radon variation are different in different cities. The influence of building factors on radon concentration variations was more dominant in inland cities in comparison to the city situated on the sea coast. The multivariate analysis, which was applied to evaluate the impact of building factors simultaneously, confirmed this influence too.