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Prediction of residential radon exposure of the whole S wiss population: comparison of model‐based predictions with measurement‐based predictions
Author(s) -
Hauri D. D.,
Huss A.,
Zimmermann F.,
Kuehni C. E.,
Röösli M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12040
Subject(s) - radon , environmental science , radon exposure , exposure assessment , population , predictive modelling , statistics , environmental health , mathematics , medicine , physics , nuclear physics
Radon plays an important role for human exposure to natural sources of ionizing radiation. The aim of this article is to compare two approaches to estimate mean radon exposure in the S wiss population: model‐based predictions at individual level and measurement‐based predictions based on measurements aggregated at municipality level. A nationwide model was used to predict radon levels in each household and for each individual based on the corresponding tectonic unit, building age, building type, soil texture, degree of urbanization, and floor. Measurement‐based predictions were carried out within a health impact assessment on residential radon and lung cancer. Mean measured radon levels were corrected for the average floor distribution and weighted with population size of each municipality. Model‐based predictions yielded a mean radon exposure of the S wiss population of 84.1 Bq/m 3 . Measurement‐based predictions yielded an average exposure of 78 Bq/m 3 . This study demonstrates that the model‐ and the measurement‐based predictions provided similar results. The advantage of the measurement‐based approach is its simplicity, which is sufficient for assessing exposure distribution in a population. The model‐based approach allows predicting radon levels at specific sites, which is needed in an epidemiological study, and the results do not depend on how the measurement sites have been selected.