The Radon Effective Dose Calculation Following the Dosimetric Approach: Examples and Challenges

With the ICRP Publication 137 dealing with the occupational intake of radionuclides, an important and crucial path toward the practical implementation of the dosimetric approach also for radon was undertaken. However, some problems and difficulties must be overcome to use this new method to estimate the effective dose of radon in real situations. Direct dosimetric calculations are often not an easy task. The ICRP Publication 137 gives some examples of this new approach by providing the coefficients of the effective dose per exposure for some typical workplaces. In this work, some practical examples of the effective dose calculation in some selected workplaces were performed, studying the most important factors affecting the results. In particular, the role of the equilibrium factor F and of the dose conversion factor (DCF) as a function of the particulate size distribution were investigated and discussed. In this context, a few direct measurements of the equilibrium factor F were done as well as an experimental supporting tool for a comprehensive dose assessment.