Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on January 25, 2006
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2006 121(2):158-167; doi:10.1093/rpd/nck001
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Radon survey and exposure assessment in hospitals
*
Jo
ef Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
* Corresponding author: janja.vaupoti{at}ijs.si
Received December 28, 2004, amended September 26, 2005, accepted December 19, 2005
| Abstract |
|---|
In this study radon (222Rn) in indoor air was surveyed in 201 rooms of 26 major hospitals in Slovenia and annual effective doses for 1025 persons working in the rooms surveyed were estimated. Instantaneous radon concentrations were measured with alpha scintillation cells, long-term average concentrations with etched track detectors and electret detectors, and radon, its progeny and equilibrium factor were continuously recorded with portable devices. Effective doses were estimated by using ICRP Publication 65 methodology. Only in seven rooms did the average radon concentration, obtained by 1 month exposing etched track detectors, exceed the national limit of 400 Bq m3; and these places will be mitigated; elsewhere it was lower. Annual effective doses for 966 persons (94.2%) were estimated as <1 mSv, but for 10 persons they were between 2.1 and 7.3 mSv. The results warn that in an environment with generally low radon levels, hot points may be found, and therefore radon surveys should be carefully designed and performed in order not to miss them.