Quantitative evaluation of the lung cancer deaths attributable to residential radon: A simple method and results for all the 21 Italian Regions |
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| Institution: | 1. Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health), Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy;2. Lazio Regional Health Service, Dept. of Epidemiology, Via S. Costanza 53, 00198 Rome, Italy;1. Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Matematica, Via Bonardi, 9, 20133 Milano, Italy;2. Clifford Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, Galglaan 2, 9000 Gent, Belgium;1. Unitat de Física de les Radiacions, Dpt. de Física, Ed. Cc, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra E-08193, Spain;2. Unitat de Geodinàmica Externa i d’Hidrogeologia, Dpt. de Geologia, Ed. Cs, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra E-08193, Spain;3. Institut de Tècniques Energètiques, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Avda. Diagonal 647, Barcelona E-08028, Spain;4. Institut Català de Ciències del Clima, C/ Dr Trueta 203, Barcelona E-08005, Spain;1. ARPA Emilia Romagna, Dept. Reggio Emilia, Via Amendola 2, 42100 Reggio Emilia, Italy;2. Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Wroclaw, pl.M.Borna 9, 50-204 Wroclaw, Poland;3. Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection (CLOR), ul.Konwaliowa 7, 03-194 Warszawa, Poland;4. Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, Wroclaw University of Technology, ul. Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland |
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| Abstract: | Pooled analyses of epidemiological case--control studies on lung cancer and residential radon have shown that radon exposure in dwellings increases lung cancer risk, and that the increase is statistically significant also for prolonged exposures to low-medium level of radon concentration, i.e. levels commonly found in many dwellings. In this paper, a simple method to evaluate the health burden due to the presence of radon in homes (i.e. the number of lung cancer deaths attributable to radon exposure in dwellings) was presented. This method is based on the following parameters: i) the excess relative risk per unit of exposure evaluated in case-control studies; ii) the average radon concentration that can be considered representative of population exposure in dwellings; iii) the total number of lung cancer deaths occurring each year. Moreover, the interaction between radon and cigarette smoking is needed to be taken into account: in fact, although most of the persons are non-smokers, most of the lung cancer deaths attributed to radon are actually due to the multiplicative effect of radon and cigarette smoking. To show this effect, the number of radon related lung cancer deaths estimated to occur among current, former and never smokers was calculated separately for males and females, taking into account the relative risk of lung cancer for the different smoking categories and the prevalence of smoking habits. The methodology described in this work was applied to all the 21 Italian Regions in order to illustrate it. The overall fraction of lung cancer deaths attributable to radon in Italy is about 10%, with values in individual Regions ranging from 4% to 16%. The greater part of the lung cancers attributable to radon is estimated to occur among current smokers for both males and females (72% and 60%, respectively, at national level). This is due to the synergistic effects of radon and cigarette smoking, which should therefore be taken into account in policies aimed to reduce the health burden from radon. |
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