RADON AND ITS DECAY PRODUCTS

James A. 1987. A reconsideration of cells at risk and other key factors in radon daughter dosimetry. In Hopke P, ed. Radon and its decay products Occurrence, properties and health effects. ACS Symposium Series 331. Washington, DC American Chemical Society, 400-418. 

Radon and its decay products were a major focus of meetings held in Capri, Italy, in 1983 and in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in 1985. These meetings reported on ongoing national surveys in European countries, on laboratory and field studies on the properties of radon decay products, and on the models for relating the airborne radioactivity concentrations to the human lung. 

In order to focus on more of the basic research problems related to radon, a symposium was organized in conjunction with the 191th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. This volume presents most of the reports given at that symposium. There are five major groups of reports occurrence, measurement methods, physical and chemical properties of radon and its decay products, health effects, and mitigation of radon levels. 

The physico-chemical properties of radon and its decay products are presented in a series of reports primarily focusing on the decay products. However, Stein (1987) presents a review of his pioneering studies of radon chemistry and the reactions of radon with strong oxidizing agents. Although radon is not chemically active in indoor air, it is interesting to note that radon is not an "inert gas. 

There are several groups of chapters discussing the health effects of radon and its decay products. In Pohl-Ruling et al. (1987) and Reubel et al. (1987), the direct effect of ionizing radiation on cell behavior are presented. Such studies help to elucidate the relationship between the radiation dose and the response at the... 

Cliff, K.D., A.D. Wrixon, B.M.R. Green, and J.C.H. Miles, Radon and Its Decay-Product Concentrations in UK Dwellings, this volume (1987). 

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