Quantitative health impact of indoor radon in France.

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Since the previous quantitative risk assessment of indoor radon conducted in France, input data have changed such as, estimates of indoor radon concentrations, lung cancer rates and the prevalence of tobacco consumption. The aim of this work was to update the risk assessment of lung cancer mortality attributable to indoor radon in France using recent risk models and data, improving the consideration of smoking, and providing results at a fine geographical scale.

Residential Exposure to Natural Background Radiation and Risk of Childhood Acute Leukemia in France, 1990-2009.

Background: Exposures to high-dose ionizing radiation and high-dose rate ionizing radiation are established risk factors for childhood acute leukemia (AL). The risk of AL following exposure to lower doses due to natural background radiation (NBR) has yet to be conclusively determined.

Methods: AL cases diagnosed over 1990-2009 (9,056 cases) were identified and their municipality of residence at diagnosis collected by the National Registry of Childhood Cancers.

Estimation of sedimentation rates based on the excess of radium 228 in granitic reservoir sediments.

Knowledge of sedimentation rates in lakes is required to understand and quantify the geochemical processes involved in scavenging and remobilization of contaminants at the Sediment-Water Interface (SWI). The well-known Pb excess (Pb) method cannot be used for quantifying sedimentation rates in uranium-enriched catchments, as large amounts of Pb produced by weathering and human activities may dilute the atmospheric Pb. As an alternative dating method in these cases, we propose an original method based on Th decay series nuclides.

Comparison of two numerical modelling approaches to a field experiment of unsaturated radon transport in a covered uranium mill tailings soil (Lavaugrasse, France).

Uncertainties on the mathematical modelling of radon ((222)Rn) transport in an unsaturated covered uranium mill tailings (UMT) soil at field scale can have a great impact on the estimation of the average measured radon exhalation rate to the atmosphere at the landfill cover. These uncertainties are usually attributed to the numerical errors from numerical schemes dealing with soil layering, and to inadequate modelling of physical processes at the soil/plant/atmosphere interface and of the soil hydraulic and transport properties, as well as their parameterization. In this work, we demonstrate how to quantify these uncertainties by comparing simulation results from two different numerical models to experimental data of radon exhalation rate and activity concentration in the soil-gas measured in a covered UMT-soil near the landfill site Lavaugrasse (France).