Paracelsian 'Bergsucht' - lung cancer or radiation-induced fibrosis?

Purpose: Assessment of absorbed doses on organs and tissues of miners during radon exposure in the Schneeberg mines in the sixteenth century and calculation of the probability of occurrence of radiation-induced lung cancer and lung fibrosis, considering the life expectancy characteristic and the absence of smoking.

Materials And Methods: The expected radon concentration at the Schneeberg mines has been estimated using published data. Modeling of the accumulation of radon in the working tunnels of mine workings was carried out using the RESRAD-Build 4.

Gross alpha activity in urban sediments as an important indicator of urban environmental processes on the example of three Russian cities.

The protection of the urban environment from radioactive wastes (including technologically enhanced natural radionuclides) and potentially harmful elements have recently become very critical. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the radioactive levels in low-volume samples of dust and fine sand fractions of the urban surface deposited sediments (USDS) collected in three Russian cities. The detection was conducted via CR-39 and LR-115 type II solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) have been used to detect gross alpha activity concentrations.

UNATTACHED 212PB FRACTION IN THE WORKER'S BREATHING ZONE AT HIGH THORON CONCENTRATIONS.

Classical aerosol physics predicts that it is impossible to observe noticeable values of the unattached fraction of decay products of thoron at typical concentrations of aerosol particles. The experimental data have shown that the unattached fraction of the thoron decay products in a monazite storage facility is in the range 0.3-0.

CALCULATION OF DOSE CONVERSION FACTORS BASED ON THE RESULTS OF GEOMETRIC MIXTURE MODELS FOR RISK ASSESSMENT OF RADON EXPOSURE.

The results of the geometric mixture model by Tomasek (2011, 2013) were applied for the calculation of radiation risk at radon exposure at the assessment of dose conversion factors (DCF; mSv/WLM) from radon exposure to the effective dose-by-dose conversion convention approach for cohorts with different smoking status. It is shown that the use of a geometric mixture model results in a better agreement between DCF values for men and women.

Radon concentration in conventional and new energy efficient multi-storey apartment houses: results of survey in four Russian cities.

During last decades, energy saving in new buildings became relevant within the energy efficiency strategies in various countries. Such energy efficient building characteristics as air tightening and low ventilation can compromise indoor air quality, in particular, increase radon concentration. In Russia, a significant part of the new buildings is the energy efficient multi-storey apartment houses.

The influence of uncertainties of radon exposure on the results of case-control epidemiological study.

Purpose: Simulation of large-scale epidemiological study to identify the influence of uncertainties of radon exposure assessment on the excess relative risk of lung cancer.

Materials And Methods: Analysis of sources of uncertainties arising during radon epidemiologic case-control studies. Assessment of the uncertainties due to influence of long-term variations of radon concentration, exposure to radon in other places of human presence, except dwellings, quality of radon concentration measurements etc.

The influence of radon measurement errors on the uncertainties of epidemiological case-control studies.

To analyse the influence of the parameters of case and control groups and uncertainties of radon concentration assessments on the dose-effect dependence, a special computer program was designed. The influence of measurement errors on the uncertainties of radon case-control analysis is demonstrated on examples of hypothetical case and control groups with sizes from 250-500 to 7000-14,000 members. The modelling was conducted using a Monte Carlo technique for different values of measurement uncertainties.

Radium-226 concentration in spring water sampled in high radon regions.

Water (226)Ra concentration in springs was measured in regions with high indoor radon: Ural, North Caucasus (Russia), Niska Banja (Serbia), Piestany (Slovakia), and Issyk-Kul (Kyrgyzstan). This paper presents the results for (226)Ra concentration above 0.03 Bq l(-1).