By Jane Collingwood
Hundreds of deaths could be prevented each year by bringing in tighter laws on household radon levels, researchers claimed today.
Government protection policies mainly focus on the small number of homes with high radon levels, neglecting the fact that 95 per cent of radon-related deaths are caused by lower levels, write Professor Alastair Gray and colleagues at Oxford University, UK, on the website of the British Medical Journal.
The team investigated the number of deaths from lung cancer related to radon in the home, and the cost-effectiveness of new policies.
The mean radon concentration in UK homes is 21 becquerels per cubic metre, due to the decay of uranium in the ground. About three per cent of all lung cancer deaths are related to radon in the home at concentrations below 100 becquerels/m3, alongside smoking, the experts report.
"Current policy requiring basic measures to prevent radon in new homes in selected areas is highly cost-effective, and such measures would remain cost effective if extended to the entire UK," they write.
The experts point out: "Current policy identifying and remediating existing homes with high radon levels is, however, neither cost-effective nor effective in reducing lung cancer mortality. These conclusions are likely to apply to most developed countries."
Professor Anssi Auvinen of the University of Tampere in Finland, and colleagues, write in an editorial that they support the findings.
"Most lung cancers caused by radon occur at moderate or low concentrations of radon, and that the most cost-effective policy is to apply basic anti-radon measures in all new dwellings," they believe.
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