Evaluation of the estimation of indoor radon influence on lung cancer mortality

Abstract

The influence of indoor radon on lung cancer risk has been confirmed and estimated by many researchers. The fact that indoor radon exposure is higher than outdoor radon has increased people’s concern on radon since most people’s time was spent indoors. Through epidemiological study, UNSCEAR, BEIR, and ICRP have estimated the significance of radon exposure influence to lung cancer mortality. The estimation is established in the form of a fatal risk constant. Even though the risk constant has been verified through epidemiological studies, the applicability of the prediction constant should be evaluated by comparing it with a real case. In this study, the fatality number caused by indoor radon from many countries was estimated and calculated using the risk constant established by UNSCEAR, BEIR, and ICRP and then evaluated with real cases issued by World Health Organization (WHO). The evaluation result showed that the lung cancer fatality estimation associated to indoor radon using fatal risk constants has good applicability in most of the countries, evaluated by WHO real case data. However, few countries showed different results compared to the real cases, which may be caused by the social-economic factor of the countries in smoking habit and health facility difference.