Health Physics. 115(3):344–353, SEP 2018

DOI: 10.1097/HP.0000000000000888

,  

PMID: 30045114

Issn Print: 0017-9078

Publication Date: 2018/09/01


Share this on facebook   Share this on Twitter   Share this on LinkedIn   Email this article  



Print

Indoor and Outdoor Radon Concentration Levels in Lebanon

Rima Habib;Rida Nuwayhid;Zena Hamdan;Ibrahim Alameddine;Gabriel Katul;

+ Author Information


    loading  Checking for direct PDF access through Ovid

Abstract

Lebanon’s lung cancer rates, among the highest in the Arab region, contribute to the burden of noncommunicable diseases. A number of studies have shown that lung cancer risk increases when smokers vs. nonsmokers exposed to elevated radon levels are compared. This research employs indoor and outdoor space and time concentration surveys across Lebanon, where the smoking rate among the population is among the highest in the world. The distributional properties of measured radon concentration were shown to be lognormal with median indoor and outdoor concentrations of 17 and 10 Bq m−3, respectively. Standard deviation for indoor concentrations was 1.2 times smaller than its outdoor counterpart, suggesting that weather-related patterns affect outdoor radon concentration variability. No significant spatial association was detected across seasons for indoor and outdoor radon concentrations. Geographical location, proximity to faults, and housing construction material had no significant impact on outdoor and indoor radon concentration variations. When lognormal distributions were used to determine exceedance probability of the recommended reference radon concentration, they were smaller than 0.1%. While exhibiting high seasonal variability, the study shows that radon does not appear to be a public health concern in Lebanon.

Related Topics

        loading  Loading Related Articles