The history of the radon problem in mines and homes

Abstract

The radon saga is a scientific thriller with tragic features and political confounders. The historical roots of this saga reach back to the 15th century. It is a field full of dilemmas, controversies and frustrations, some of which still persist. One should learn from this history which has been described in part by Schüttmann (1988) and Stannard (1988).

References

Agricola

(ca. 1550). Bermannus oder über den Bergbau. Ein Dialog; see G. Agricola—Ausgewählte Werke Vol. II, Berlin, 1955.

Agricola

(1556). De Re Metallica, Libri VI, Basle 1556. English translation by H. C. and L. H. Hoover, Dover Publications, New York, 1950.

Altshuler

Nelson

Kuschner

(1964). Estimation of lung tissue dose from the inhalation of radon and daughters. Health Phys. 10, 1137–1161.

Aurand

Jacobi

Schraub

(1955). Über die Bestimmung der Retention radioaktiver Aerosole im menschlichen Atemtrakt. Naturwissenschaften 42, 398–399.

Bale

W. F.

(1951). Hazards Associated with Radon and Thoron. Unpublished memorandum to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (reprinted in Health Phys. 38, 1061 (1980)).

Bale

W. F.

Shapiro

J. V.

(1956). Radiation dosage to lungs from radon and its daughter products. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of the Atomic Energy, Geneva, 1955. Vol. 13, pp. 233–236. United Nations, New York.

Curie

(1898). Sur une substance nouvelle radio-active contenne dans la pechblende C. R. Hebel, seances. C. R. Acad. Sci. 127, 175–178.

Ennemoser

Ambach

Brunner

Schneider

Oberaigner

(1993). Exposure to unusually high indoor radon levels. The Lancet 341, 828–829.

Elster

Geitel

(1901). Über eine fernere Analogie in dem elektrischen Verhalten der natürlichen und der durch Becquerelstrahlen abnorm leitend gemachten Luft. Phys. Z. 2, 590–593.

10.

Federal Radiation Council, U.S.A. (1967). Guidance for the control of radiation hazards in uranium mining. Staff Report No. 8 (revised), Washington, DC.

11.

Frieben

(1902). Canceroid nach langdauernder Einwirkung von Röntgenstrahlen. Fortschr. Röntgenstrahlen 6, 106.

12.

Haerting

F. H.

Hesse

(1879). Der Lungenkrebs, die Bergkrankheit in den Schneeberger Gruben. V. gericht. Med. öff. Gesund Wes. 30, 296–309 and 31, 102–132, 313–337.

13.

Harley

J. H.

(1953). Sampling and measurement of airborne daughter products of radon. Nucleonics 11, 12–15.

14.

Hesse

(1911). Symptomatologie, Pathogenese und Therapie des Röntgenkarzinoms. Abhandl. a. d. Gebiet d. mediz. Elek. Röntgen. Heft 10, Leipzig.

15.

Holaday

D. A.

Rushing

D. E.

Coleman

R. D.

Woolrich

P. F.

Kusnetz

H. L.

Bale

W. F.

(1957). Control of radon and daughters in uranium mines and calculations on biological effects. U.S. Public Health Service Report 494. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

16.

Hueck

(1939). Kurzer Bericht über die Ergebnisse anatomischer Untersuchungen in Schneeberg. Z. Krebsforsch. 47, 108–111.

17.

Hultqvist

(1956). Studies on naturally occurring ionising radiations (Thesis). K. svenska VetenskAkad. Handl. 6(3). Almqvist u. Wiksells Boktryckeri, Stockholm.

18.

ICRP (1959). Permissible Dose for Internal Radiation. Report of Committee 2. ICRP Publication 2. Annals of the ICRP.

19.

ICRP (1987). Lung Cancer Risk from Indoor Exposures to Radon Daughters. ICRP Publication 50. Annals of the ICRP 17(1).

20.

Jacobi

Aurand

Schraub

(1956). The radiation exposure of the organism by inhalation of naturally radioactive aerosols. Proc. Int. Radiobiol. Conf. Stockholm, pp. 310–318, in Advances in Radiobiology, 1957.

21.

Jacobi

(1964). The dose to the human respiratory tract by inhalation of short-lived ²²²Rn and ²²⁰Rn decay products. Health Phys. 10, 1163–1174.

22.

Jacobi

Henrichs

Barclay

(1992). Verura schungswahrscheinlichkeit von Lungenkrebs durch die berufliche Strahlenexposition von Uran-Bergarbeitern der WISMUT AG. GSF Research Center for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Germany. GSF-Report S-14/92.

23.

Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, U.S.A. (1967). Radiation Exposure of Uranium Miners. Summary Analysis of Hearings, Congress of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

24.

Lorenz

(1944). Radioactivity and lung cancer: a critical review of lung cancer in the miners of Schneeberg and Joachimsthal. J. natn. Cancer Inst. 5, 1–15.

25.

Lubin

J. H.

You-Lin

Taylor

P. R.

Shu-Xiang

Schatzkin

Bao-Lin

Jian-Yu

Xiang-Zhen

(1990). Quantitative evaluation of the radon and lung cancer association in a case control study of Chinese tin miners. Cancer Res. 50, 174.

26.

Ludewig

Lorenzer

(1924). Untersuchungen der Grubenluft in den Schneeberger Gruben auf den Gehalt von Radium-Emanation. Z. Phys. 22, 178–185.

27.

Lundin

F. E.

Wagoner

J. K.

Archer

V. E.

(1971). Radon daughter exposure and respiratory cancer: Quantitative and temporal aspects. Joint Monograph No. I. NIOSH and NIEHS, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, Washington, DC.

28.

Morrison

H. E.

Semenenciw

R. M.

Mao

Wigle

D. T.

(1988). Cancer mortality among a group of fluorspar miners exposed to radon progeny. Am. J. Epidemiol. 128, 1266.

29.

Neuberger

J. S.

(1992). Residential radon exposure and lung cancer: An overview of ongoing studies. Health Phys. 63, 503–509.

30.

NRC (1988). Health risks of radon and other internally deposited alpha emitters. U.S. National Research Council Report BEIR IV, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.

31.

Paracelsus (1567). Von der Bergsucht und anderen Bergkrankheiten; s. Schriften aus dem Gesamtgebiet der Gewerbehygiene, Neue Folge, Heft 12. J. Springer, Berlin, 1925.

32.

Paracelsus (1567). Four treaties of Theophrastus v. Hohenheim (Paracelsus). Part II: On the miners' sickness and other miners' diseases. Translated by Sigerist

H. E.

. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1941.

33.

Pershagen

Liang

Z. H.

Hrubec

Svensson

Boice

J. R.

Jr (1992). Residential radon exposure and lung cancer in women. Health Phys. 63, 179–186.

34.

Pershagen

Axelson

Clavensjö

Damber

Desai

Enflo

Lagarde

Mellander

Svartengren

Swedjemark

G. A.

Akerblom

(1993). Radon i bostäder och lung cancer. En landsomfattande epidemiologisc undersökning. IMM-Rapport 2/93, Stockholm.

35.

Pirchan

Sikl

(1932). Cancer of the lung in the miners of Jachymov (Joachimsthal). Am. J. Cancer 61, 681–722.

36.

Radford

E. P.

St Clair Renard

K. G.

(1984). Lung cancer in Swedish iron miners exposed to low doses of radon daughters. New Engl. J. Med. 310 (23), 1485–1494.

37.

Rajewsky

(1944). Bericht über die Schneeberger Untersuchungen. Z. Krebsforschung 49, 315–340.

38.

Rosen

(1943). The history of miner's diseases. A medical and social interpretation. New York.

39.

Rostoski

Saupe

Schmorl

(1926). Die Bergkrankheit der Erzbergleute in Schneeberg in Sachsen. Z. Krebsforsch. 23, 360–384.

40.

Rutherford

(1907). Some cosmical aspects of radioactivity. J. R. Astron. Soc., Canada, 145–165.

41.

Schoenberg

J. B.

Klotz

J. B.

Wilcox

H. B.

Nicholls

G. P.

Gil-del-Real

M. T.

Sternhagen

Mason

T. J.

(1990). Case-control study of residential radon and lung cancer among New Jersey women. Cancer Res. 50, 6520–6524.

42.

Schraub

Aurand

Jacobi

(1955). Untersuchungen zur strahlenbiologischen Bedeutung der Folgeprodukte des Radons. Arch. phys. Ther. 7, 437–444.

43.

Schüttman

(1988). Beitrag zur Geschichte der Schneeberger Lungenkrankheit, des Strahlenkrebses der Lunge durch Radon und seine folgeprodukte. NTM-Schriftenreihe, Gesch. Naturwissenschaf. Tech. Med. 25. 83–96.

44.

Sevc

Placek

(1972). Lung cancer risk in relation to long-term exposure to radon daughters. In: Health Physics Problems of Internal Contamination, pp. 129–136. Proc. 2nd European IRPA Congress, May 1972, Budapest. Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, 1973.

45.

Sevc

Kunz

Placek

(1976). Lung cancer in uranium miners after long-term exposure to radon daughter products. Health Phys. 30, 433–437.

46.

Shapiro

J. V.

(1956). Radiation dosage from breathing radon and its daughter products. AMA Arch. Ind. Health 14, 169–177.

47.

Stannard

J. N.

(1988). Radioactivity and Health. A History. Office of Scientific and Technical Information U.S. Department of Energy (available from Life Sciences Center, Batelle North West Lab., Richland).

48.

UNSCEAR (1977). Sources and Effects of Ionising Radiation. United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. 1977 Report to the General Assembly, United Nations, New York.

49.

UNSCEAR (1982). Ionising Radiation: Sources and Biological Effects. United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. 1982 Report to the General Assembly, United Nations, New York.

50.

UNSCEAR (1988). Sources, Effects and Risks of Ionising Radiation. United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. 1988 Report to the General Assembly, United Nations, New York.