Abstract

Radon and its progeny have been identified as the second leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking. Radon decays to a long-lived isotope, ²¹⁰Pb, with a half-life of about 22 years. Measuring concentrations of ²¹⁰Pb in household dust could be an alternative method of determining indoor radon levels. A previous study conducted in 2008 demonstrated that ²¹⁰Pb concentrations in household dust correlate reasonably well to radon concentrations in homes. To confirm the viability of this retrospective method, a field experiment was repeated in 2010 to further study the correlation between ²¹⁰Pb in household dust and indoor radon concentration. The results showed that ²¹⁰Pb is a reasonably good indicator of long-term radon exposure indoors when dust samples collected are representative of household dust in a house.

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