IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i7p3929-d779655.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of Indoor Radon on Health: A Comprehensive Review on Causes, Assessment and Remediation Strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Leonel J. R. Nunes

    (PROMETHEUS, Unidade de Investigação em Materiais, Energia e Ambiente para a Sustentabilidade, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal
    Escola Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4990-706 Ponte de Lima, Portugal)

  • António Curado

    (PROMETHEUS, Unidade de Investigação em Materiais, Energia e Ambiente para a Sustentabilidade, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal
    Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-348 Viana do Castelo, Portugal)

  • Luís C. C. da Graça

    (UICISA:E, Unidade de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde: Enfermagem, Escola Superior de Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal)

  • Salete Soares

    (UICISA:E, Unidade de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde: Enfermagem, Escola Superior de Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal)

  • Sérgio Ivan Lopes

    (Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-348 Viana do Castelo, Portugal
    ADiT-Lab, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal
    Instituto de Telecomunicações (I), Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal)

Abstract

Indoor radon exposure is raising concerns due to its impact on health, namely its known relationship with lung cancer. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand the risk factors associated with radon exposure, and how this can be harmful to the health of exposed populations. This article presents a comprehensive review of studies indicating a correlation between indoor radon exposure and the higher probability of occurrence of health problems in exposed populations. The analyzed studies statistically justify this correlation between exposure to indoor radon and the incidence of lung diseases in regions where concentrations are particularly high. However, some studies also showed that even in situations where indoor radon concentrations are lower, can be found a tendency, albeit smaller, for the occurrence of negative impacts on lung cancer incidence. Lastly, regarding risk remediation, an analysis has been conducted and presented in two core perspectives: (i) focusing on the identification and application of corrective measures in pre-existing buildings, and (ii) focusing on the implementation of preventive measures during the project design and before construction, both focusing on mitigating negative impacts of indoor radon exposure on the health of populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonel J. R. Nunes & António Curado & Luís C. C. da Graça & Salete Soares & Sérgio Ivan Lopes, 2022. "Impacts of Indoor Radon on Health: A Comprehensive Review on Causes, Assessment and Remediation Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-14, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:3929-:d:779655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3929/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3929/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan M. Samet & Richard W. Hornung, 1990. "Review of Radon and Lung Cancer Risk," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 65-75, March.
    2. Marie-Eve Levasseur & Patrick Poulin & Céline Campagna & Jean-Marc Leclerc, 2017. "Integrated Management of Residential Indoor Air Quality: A Call for Stakeholders in a Changing Climate," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Sérgio Ivan Lopes & Leonel J. R. Nunes & António Curado, 2021. "Designing an Indoor Radon Risk Exposure Indicator (IRREI): An Evaluation Tool for Risk Management and Communication in the IoT Age," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-26, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alberto Pietro Damiano Baltrocchi & Lucrezia Maggi & Bruno Dal Lago & Vincenzo Torretta & Márta Szabó & Muhtor Nasirov & Ergash Kabilov & Elena Cristina Rada, 2023. "Mechanisms of Diffusion of Radon in Buildings and Mitigation Techniques," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liliana Cori & Olivia Curzio & Gabriele Donzelli & Elisa Bustaffa & Fabrizio Bianchi, 2022. "A Systematic Review of Radon Risk Perception, Awareness, and Knowledge: Risk Communication Options," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-27, August.
    2. Aneta Wierzbicka & Eja Pedersen & Roger Persson & Birgitta Nordquist & Kristian Stålne & Chuansi Gao & Lars-Erik Harderup & Jonas Borell & Héctor Caltenco & Barry Ness & Emilie Stroh & Yujing Li & Mat, 2018. "Healthy Indoor Environments: The Need for a Holistic Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:3929-:d:779655. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.