Variation with socioeconomic status of indoor radon levels in Great Britain: The less affluent have less radon.

We demonstrate a strong correlation between domestic radon levels and socio-economic status (SES) in Great Britain, so that radon levels in homes of people with lower SES are, on average, only about two thirds of those of the more affluent. This trend is apparent using small area measures of SES and also using individual social classes. The reasons for these differences are not known with certainty, but may be connected with greater underpressure in warmer and better-sealed dwellings.

Two error components model for measurement error: application to radon in homes.

In this paper, a simple model for analysing variability in radon concentrations in homes is tested. The approach used here involves two error components, representing additive and multiplicative errors, together with variation between-houses. We use a Bayesian approach for our analysis and apply this model to two datasets of repeat radon measurements in homes; one based on 3-month long measurements for which the original measurements were close to the current UK Radon Action Level (200 Bq m(-3)), and the other based on 6-month measurement data (from regional and national surveys), for which the original measurements cover a wide range of radon concentrations, down to very low levels.

Uncertainties in radon related to house-specific factors and proximity to geological boundaries in England.

Data collected as a part of a survey on radon concentrations from about 40 000 dwellings in England for six contrasting geological units were analysed to evaluate the impact of house-specific factors (building characteristics and construction dates) and of proximity to geological boundaries. After adjusting for temperature and outdoor radon, geological unit, house type, double glazing and date of building were found to have a statistically significant influence on indoor radon concentrations and explained about 29 % of the total variation between dwellings in logarithmically transformed radon values. In addition, there were statistically significant differences in radon concentrations according to proximity to geological boundaries categories for most of the geological units, but no consistent pattern could be detected.