Radon programmes and health marketing.

Being aware of negative health effects of radon exposure, many countries aim for the reduction of the radon exposure of their population. The Czech radon programme was commenced >20 y ago. Since then experts have gathered a lot of knowledge, necessary legislation has been enacted, tens of thousands of inhabitants have been offered free measurement and subsidy for the mitigation. Despite the effort, the effectiveness of the radon programme seems to be poor. Newly built houses still exhibit elevated radon concentrations and the number of houses mitigated is very low. Is it possible to enhance the effectivity of radon programme while keeping it on a voluntary basis? One possible way is to employ health marketing that draws together traditional marketing theories and science-based strategies to prevention. The potential of using marketing principles in communication and delivery of radon information will be discussed.