Residential radon exposure and lung cancer—an epidemiological study of Norwegian municipalities

Abstract

The study is based on a collaboration between the Cancer Registry of Norway, the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, and National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB, UK). The association between indoor radon exposure and lung cancer was studied in 427 municipalities. NRPB detectors were sent to 10,000 households, and 7,500 of the detectors were returned. Data from a nation-wide survey of smoking habits in 1964-1965 were available. Data on asbestos exposure were also used in a regression analysis. The reporting to the Cancer Registry of all new cases of cancer is fairly complete, as hospital departments and institutes of pathology are obliged to report all cancer cases. The histologically confirmed lung cancer cases were grouped into squamous-cell carcinoma, small-cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and other or non-specified histological types. The age-adjusted rate of lung cancer by histological type was the dependent variable in the regression analysis. A consistent increase in incidence of lung cancer was seen with increasing tobacco consumption, but no positive trend could be shown with increasing radon exposure in the descriptive presentation of the data. In the regression analysis, however, the incidence of small-cell anaplastic lung tumors in females increased significantly with increasing radon exposure. When based on the regression coefficients, the fraction of lung cancers attributable to radon is about 2-4%. However, systematic errors cannot be excluded in an ecological study such as presented here.