Yonsei Med J.  2019 Jul;60(7):597-603. 10.3349/ymj.2019.60.7.597.

Health Effects of Radon Exposure

Affiliations
  • 1Dongnam Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
  • 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Dongnam Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, Busan, Korea.
  • 3National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, Seoul, Korea. ywjin@kirams.re.kr

Abstract

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive material that is formed as the decay product of uranium and thorium, and is estimated to contribute to approximately half of the average annual natural background radiation. When inhaled, it damages the lungs during radioactive decay and affects the human body. Through many epidemiological studies regarding occupational exposure among miners and residential exposure among the general population, radon has been scientifically proven to cause lung cancer, and radon exposure is the second most common cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking. However, it is unclear whether radon exposure causes diseases other than lung cancer. Media reports have often dealt with radon exposure in relation to health problems, although public attention has been limited to a one-off period. However, recently in Korea, social interest and concern about radon exposure and its health effects have increased greatly due to mass media reports of high concentrations of radon being released from various close-to-life products, such as mattresses and beauty masks. Accordingly, this review article is intended to provide comprehensive scientific information regarding the health effects of radon exposure.

Keyword

Radon; inhalation exposure; lung neoplasm

MeSH Terms

Background Radiation
Beauty
Beds
Epidemiologic Studies
Human Body
Inhalation Exposure
Korea
Lung
Lung Neoplasms
Masks
Mass Media
Miners
Occupational Exposure
Radon*
Smoking
Thorium
Uranium
Radon
Thorium
Uranium

Reference

1. United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Sources and effects of ionizing radiation: effects. Vol. 2. New York (NY): United Nations;2000.
2. National Research Council. Health risks from exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation: BEIR VII Phase 2. Vol. 7. Washington DC (WA): National Academies Press;2006.
3. Bhaskaran R, Damodaran RC, Kumar VA, Panakal John J, Bangaru D, Natarajan C, et al. Inhalation dose and source term studies in a tribal area of Wayanad, Kerala, India. J Environ Public Health. 2017; 2017:1930787.
Article
4. Meenakshi C, Sivasubramanian K, Venkatraman B. Nucleoplasmic bridges as a biomarker of DNA damage exposed to radon. Mutat Res. 2017; 814:22–28.
Article
5. Pirchan A, Šikl H. Cancer of the lung in the miners of Jachymov (Joachimstal): report of cases observed in 1929-1930. Am J Cancer. 1932; 16:681–722.
6. Harting FH, Hesse W. Lung cancer, the mountain sickness in the Schneeberger pits. Viertelj Gerichtl Med Off Sanitäts. 1879; 30:296–309. 331102–132. 313–337.
7. Jacobi W. The history of the radon problem in mines and homes. Ann ICRP. 1993; 23:39–45.
Article
8. Tirmarche M, Harrison JD, Laurier D, Paquet F, Blanchardon E, Marsh JW, et al. ICRP Publication 115. Lung cancer risk from radon and progeny and statement on radon. Ann ICRP. 2010; 40:1–64.
9. National Research Council. Health risks of radon and other internally deposited alpha-emitters: BEIR IV. Vol. 4. Washington DC (WA): National Academies Press;1988.
10. ICRP. Protection against radon-222 at home and at work. Pergamon, Oxford: International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 65;1993.
11. National Research Council. Health effects of exposure to radon: BEIR VI. Vol. 6. Washington DC (WA): National Academies Press;1999.
12. United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Effects of ionizing radiation: scientific annexes C, D, and E. Vol 2. New York (NY): United Nations;2009.
13. Lane RSD, Tomášek L, Zablotska LB, Rage E, Momoli F, Little J. Low radon exposures and lung cancer risk: joint analysis of the Czech, French, and Beaverlodge cohorts of uranium miners. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2019; 92:747–762.
Article
14. Keil AP, Richardson DB, Troester MA. Healthy worker survivor bias in the Colorado Plateau uranium miners cohort. Am J Epidemiol. 2015; 181:762–770.
Article
15. Navaranjan G, Berriault C, Do M, Villeneuve PJ, Demers PA. Cancer incidence and mortality from exposure to radon progeny among Ontario uranium miners. Occup Environ Med. 2016; 73:838–845.
Article
16. Tomasek L. Lung cancer mortality among Czech uranium miners-60 years since exposure. J Radiol Prot. 2012; 32:301–314.
Article
17. Laborde-Castérot H, Laurier D, Caër-Lorho S, Etard C, Acker A, Rage E. Chest X-ray screening examinations among French uranium miners: exposure estimation and impact on radon-associated lung cancer risk. Occup Environ Med. 2014; 71:611–618.
Article
18. Rage E, Caër-Lorho S, Laurier D. Low radon exposure and mortality among Jouac uranium miners: an update of the French cohort (1946–2007). J Radiol Prot. 2018; 38:92–108.
Article
19. Walsh L, Dufey F, Tschense A, Schnelzer M, Grosche B, Kreuzer M. Radon and the risk of cancer mortality--internal Poisson models for the German uranium miners cohort. Health Phys. 2010; 99:292–300.
Article
20. Kreuzer M, Dufey F, Laurier D, Nowak D, Marsh JW, Schnelzer M, et al. Mortality from internal and external radiation exposure in a cohort of male German uranium millers, 1946–2008. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2015; 88:431–441.
Article
21. Jonsson H, Bergdahl IA, Akerblom G, Eriksson K, Andersson K, Kågström L, et al. Lung cancer risk and radon exposure in a cohort of iron ore miners in Malmberget, Sweden. Occup Environ Med. 2010; 67:519–525.
Article
22. Wang Z, Lubin JH, Wang L, Zhang S, Boice JD Jr, Cui H, et al. Residential radon and lung cancer risk in a high-exposure area of Gansu Province, China. Am J Epidemiol. 2002; 155:554–564.
Article
23. Tomasek L. Lung cancer risk from occupational and environmental radon and role of smoking in two Czech nested case-control studies. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013; 10:963–979.
Article
24. Baysson H, Tirmarche M, Tymen G, Gouva S, Caillaud D, Artus JC, et al. Indoor radon and lung cancer in France. Epidemiology. 2004; 15:709–716.
Article
25. Barros-Dios JM, Ruano-Ravina A, Pérez-Ríos M, Castro-Bernárdez M, Abal-Arca J, Tojo-Castro M. Residential radon exposure, histologic types, and lung cancer risk. A case-control study in Galicia, Spain. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012; 21:951–958.
Article
26. Torres-Durán M, Ruano-Ravina A, Parente-Lamelas I, Leiro-Fernández V, Abal-Arca J, Montero-Martínez C, et al. Lung cancer in never-smokers: a case-control study in a radon-prone area (Galicia, Spain). Eur Respir J. 2014; 44:994–1001.
Article
27. Darby S, Whitley E, Silcocks P, Thakrar B, Green M, Lomas P, et al. Risk of lung cancer associated with residential radon exposure in south-west England: a case-control study. Br J Cancer. 1998; 78:394–408.
Article
28. Sandler DP, Weinberg CR, Shore DL, Archer VE, Stone MB, Lyon JL, et al. Indoor radon and lung cancer risk in connecticut and utah. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2006; 69:633–654.
Article
29. Wilcox HB, Al-Zoughool M, Garner MJ, Jiang H, Klotz JB, Krewski D, et al. Case-control study of radon and lung cancer in New Jersey. Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2008; 128:169–179.
Article
30. Lubin JH, Boice JD Jr. Lung cancer risk from residential radon: meta-analysis of eight epidemiologic studies. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1997; 89:49–57.
Article
31. Pavia M, Bianco A, Pileggi C, Angelillo IF. Meta-analysis of residential exposure to radon gas and lung cancer. Bull World Health Organ. 2003; 81:732–738.
32. Lubin JH, Wang ZY, Boice JD Jr, Xu ZY, Blot WJ, De Wang L, et al. Risk of lung cancer and residential radon in China: pooled results of two studies. Int J Cancer. 2004; 109:132–137.
Article
33. Krewski D, Lubin JH, Zielinski JM, Alavanja M, Catalan VS, Field RW, et al. Residential radon and risk of lung cancer: a combined analysis of 7 North American case-control studies. Epidemiology. 2005; 16:137–145.
34. Darby S, Hill D, Deo H, Auvinen A, Barros-Dios JM, Baysson H, et al. Residential radon and lung cancer--detailed results of a collaborative analysis of individual data on 7148 persons with lung cancer and 14,208 persons without lung cancer from 13 epidemiologic studies in Europe. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2006; 32:Suppl 1. 1–83.
35. Zhang ZL, Sun J, Dong JY, Tian HL, Xue L, Qin LQ, et al. Residential radon and lung cancer risk: an updated meta-analysis of case-control studies. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2012; 13:2459–2465.
Article
36. Lorenzo-González M, Ruano-Ravina A, Torres-Durán M, Kelsey KT, Provencio M, Parente-Lamelas I, et al. Lung cancer and residential radon in never-smokers: a pooling study in the Northwest of Spain. Environ Res. 2019; 172:713–718.
Article
37. World Health Organization. WHO handbook on indoor radon: a public health perspective. Geneva: World Health Organization;2009.
38. Kendall GM, Smith TJ. Doses to organs and tissues from radon and its decay products. J Radiol Prot. 2002; 22:389–406.
Article
39. Stjernfeldt M, Samuelsson L, Ludvigsson J. Radiation in dwellings and cancer in children. Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 1987; 4:55–61.
Article
40. Lubin JH, Linet MS, Boice JD Jr, Buckley J, Conrath SM, Hatch EE, et al. Case-control study of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and residential radon exposure. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1998; 90:294–300.
Article
41. Kaletsch U, Kaatsch P, Meinert R, Schüz J, Czarwinski R, Michaelis J. Childhood cancer and residential radon exposure-results of a population-based case-control study in Lower Saxony (Germany). Radiat Environ Biophys. 1999; 38:211–215.
Article
42. Steinbuch M, Weinberg CR, Buckley JD, Robison LL, Sandler DP. Indoor residential radon exposure and risk of childhood acute myeloid leukaemia. Br J Cancer. 1999; 81:900–906.
Article
43. Law GR, Kane EV, Roman E, Smith A, Cartwright R. Residential radon exposure and adult acute leukaemia. Lancet. 2000; 355:1888.
Article
44. UK Childhood Cancer Study Investigators. The United Kingdom Childhood Cancer Study of exposure to domestic sources of ionising radiation: 1: radon gas. Br J Cancer. 2002; 86:1721–1726.
45. Raaschou-Nielsen O. Indoor radon and childhood leukaemia. Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2008; 132:175–181.
Article
46. Hauri D, Spycher B, Huss A, Zimmermann F, Grotzer M, von der Weid N, et al. Domestic radon exposure and risk of childhood cancer: a prospective census-based cohort study. Environ Health Perspect. 2013; 121:1239–1244.
Article
47. Del Risco Kollerud R, Blaasaas KG, Claussen B. Risk of leukaemia or cancer in the central nervous system among children living in an area with high indoor radon concentrations: results from a cohort study in Norway. Br J Cancer. 2014; 111:1413–1420.
Article
48. Teras LR, Diver WR, Turner MC, Krewski D, Sahar L, Ward E, et al. Residential radon exposure and risk of incident hematologic malignancies in the Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort. Environ Res. 2016; 148:46–54.
Article
49. Turner MC, Krewski D, Chen Y, Pope CA 3rd, Gapstur SM, Thun MJ. Radon and COPD mortality in the American Cancer Society Cohort. Eur Respir J. 2012; 39:1113–1119.
Article
50. Ruano-Ravina A, Dacosta-Urbieta A, Barros-Dios JM, Kelsey KT. Radon exposure and tumors of the central nervous system. Gac Sanit. 2018; 32:567–575.
Article
51. Goyal N, Camacho F, Mangano J, Goldenberg D. Evaluating for a geospatial relationship between radon levels and thyroid cancer in Pennsylvania. Laryngoscope. 2015; 125:E45–E49.
Article
52. Oakland C, Meliker JR. County-level radon and incidence of female thyroid cancer in Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, USA. Toxics. 2018; 6:pii: E17.
Article
53. Wheeler BW, Allen J, Depledge MH, Curnow A. Radon and skin cancer in southwest England: an ecologic study. Epidemiology. 2012; 23:44–52.
54. Bräuner EV, Loft S, Sørensen M, Jensen A, Andersen CE, Ulbak K, et al. Residential radon exposure and skin cancer incidence in a prospective Danish cohort. PLoS One. 2015; 10:e0135642.
Article
55. Vienneau D, de Hoogh K, Hauri D, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, Schindler C, Huss A, et al. Effects of radon and UV exposure on skin cancer mortality in Switzerland. Environ Health Perspect. 2017; 125:067009.
Article
56. Möhner M, Lindtner M, Otten H. Ionizing radiation and risk of laryngeal cancer among German uranium miners. Health Phys. 2008; 95:725–733.
Article
57. Kulich M, Rerřicha V, Rerřicha R, Shore DL, Sandler DP. Incidence of non-lung solid cancers in Czech uranium miners: a case-cohort study. Environ Res. 2011; 111:400–405.
Article
58. Salgado-Espinosa T, Barros-Dios JM, Ruano-Ravina A. Radon exposure and oropharyngeal cancer risk. Cancer Lett. 2015; 369:45–49.
Article
59. Auvinen A, Salonen L, Pekkanen J, Pukkala E, Ilus T, Kurttio P. Radon and other natural radionuclides in drinking water and risk of stomach cancer: a case-cohort study in Finland. Int J Cancer. 2005; 114:109–113.
Article
60. Villeneuve PJ, Lane RS, Morrison HI. Coronary heart disease mortality and radon exposure in the Newfoundland fluorspar miners' cohort, 1950-2001. Radiat Environ Biophys. 2007; 46:291–296.
Article
61. Keith S, Doyle JR, Harper C, Mumtaz M, Tarrago O, Wohlers DW, et al. Toxicological profile for radon. Atlanta (GA): Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (US);2012.
Full Text Links
  • YMJ
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr