Abstract
It is now well established that radon and its daughter products account for nearly half of the average population exposure to ionizing radiations and that radon is the greatest single source of natural radiation to the population. Radon and its daughters are alpha-emitters, which are more biologically damaging than beta- and gamma-radiations. A nationwide survey of radon concentration was conducted by the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in order to estimate the contribution of radon and its daughters to the population dose in Japan. Authors surveyed indoor radon concentrations in Fukuoka and Kagoshima prefectures as part of this project. A passive type radon dosimeter, in which a sheet of polycarbonate film as the alpha-ray detector was mounted, was used to measure indoor radon concentrations. The resulting distribution of the average annual indoor radon concentrations in both prefectures can be characterized by an arithmetic mean of 24.4 Bq/m³ and a standard deviation of 13.1 Bq/m³, by a geometric mean of 22.2 Bq/m³, and by a median of 20 7 Bq/m³. The geometric means of the distributions for Fukuoka and Kagoshima were 25.4, and 18.4 Bq/m³, respectively. Radon concentrations were also generally high in winter and low in summer. Regarding the analysis of correlations between the concentrations and construction materials, radon concentrations were generally high in Japanese houses with earthen walls and in concrete structures. These results showed that seasons, the type of building materials, and regional differences were significant factors in the variation of indoor radon concentration.
