Management of Radon: A Review of ICRP Recommendations

Details: Category: Articles; Published: Tuesday, 06 November 2012 10:05

VAILLANT L., BATAILLE C.

This article proposes a review of past and current ICRP publications dealing with the management of radon exposures. Its main objective is to identify and discuss the driving factors that have been used by the Commission

Journal of Radiological Protection, Vol. 32, 2012, pp. R1-R12.

Abstract

This article proposes a review of past and current ICRP publications dealing with the management of radon exposures. Its main objective is to identify and discuss the driving factors that have been used by the Commission during the last 50 years so as to better appreciate current issues regarding radon exposures management. The analysis shows that major evolutions took place in the very recent years. As far as the management of radon exposures is concerned, ICRP recommended, until ICRP Publication 103 (ICRP, 2007), to use action levels and to consider only exposures above these levels. The Commission has reviewed its approach and now proposes to manage any radon exposure through the application of the optimization principle and associated reference levels. As far as the assessment of the radon risk is concerned, it appears that the successive changes made by ICRP did not have a strong impact on the values of radon gas concentration recommended as action levels either in dwellings or in workplaces. The major change occurred in late 2009 with the publication of the ICRP Statement on radon, which acknowledged that the radon risk has been under-estimated by a factor of 2, thus inducing a major revision of radon reference levels.

A1146