RE: LNT models -Constancy of Radon levels over time??

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

>the EPA literature always indicates that Radon levels
>are higher in an energy effiecient home.
This is what we got when many buildings were tightened around 1975 to save 
energy - the radon levels went up strongly. Then various (and sometimes 
quite costly depending on the construction of the building) ventilation 
programs came into the picture. I remember this because one of our 
Parliament members attacked the head of the Swedish radiation protection 
institute, SSI, because she was of the opinion that construction of 
buildings etc was not was not a business of the SSI. I don't think that she 
ever apologized.
There was probably a handful of homes by that time that would give you an 
annual effective whole body dose in the order of 500 mSv (50000 mrem, and 
with a much higher dose to the lung) as the tail of a skewed distribution. 
Lots of homes (perhaps several hundred thousand - I am not sure - maybe 
someone at SSI can help me with deatils here) were above 400 Bq/m3 by that 
time. The highest value I ever heard of was measured by a friend of mine 
(who specialized on radon) in northern Sweden - he found 44000 Bq/m3 in one 
home. They had some respiratory problems in that home but it is of course 
just one isolated case ("Feinman trap" statistics). The level was otherwise 
enough for opening a local spa...

My own reflections only,

Bjorn Cedervall  bcradsafers@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/bjorn_cedervall/

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