To make efficient use of time and arrive at a correct measurement, the person monitoring a workplace should make the following demands of the laboratory where the radon detectors were bought. This applies whether you do the job yourself or use an external consultant. Measurements should be taken with radon detectors from an accredited radon laboratory.
Radonova Laboratories is launching a new vacuum packaging solution to allow the detectors used in radon monitoring to be vacuum-sealed with a new machine. This vacuum packaging helps to enhance quality still further and ensures that the monitoring and analysis work can be done without any previous leakage affecting the measurement results.
Radonova Laboratories will be providing radon detectors to a major international study to be run by COIRA (the Coalition of International Radon Associations). The aim of the project is to compare radon measurement results obtained by the world’s leading monitoring institutions in the field of radiation protection. The project started in August 2018 and will run for two years.
A study based on data from 66 countries and presented in Environmental Health Studies (EHP) confirms that there is a clear link between exposure to radon and the risk of lung cancer. Updated data from 2012 show that around 226,000 people died that year from radon-related lung cancer. That means that about three per cent of all those who die from some form of cancer do so because of radon.
As part of the work of improving coordination and contributing to more uniform processes for analysing and measuring radon, the IAEA recently organised a workshop in Sarajevo. José-Luis Gutiérrez Villanueva from the Swedish company Radonova was present as a specialist in radon measurement. We put some questions to José-Luis, who is one of Europe’s leading experts in this field.