Radon and Non-Cancer Pulmonary Health Effects in Children: A State of The Art Review

Radon is a natural radioactive gas well-known for its carcinogenic effects. The association between radon and lung cancer is well-documented, with radon exposure the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers and the second leading cause of lung cancer in smokers in adults. However, relatively little is known about the association between radon and non-cancer respiratory disease. This review examines the role of radon's non-cancer pulmonary health effects in children, as there have been several recent studies highlighting a potentially under-recognized threat to lung health. Recent epidemiologic data in adults suggest radon and particle radioactivity attributable to radon decay products are associated with reduced pulmonary function and non-cancer related COPD morbidity and mortality, while in pediatrics, modeled radon has been reported to be associated with asthma morbidity. Recent findings of radon's non-cancer respiratory effects further highlight the role of avoidance of this environmental exposure and radon mitigation¹ as an implementable strategy to improve lung health. Further research is needed to expand our understanding of radon's potential role in non-cancer respiratory health and how to optimize radon mitigation strategies to improve non-cancer pulmonary health morbidity and outcomes. The purpose of this state-of-the-art review is to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge of radon's non-cancer respiratory health effects, highlighting our current understanding of radon's known health outcomes, synthesize how health outcome findings of this topic have changed over time to give rise to our current understanding of radon's pulmonary health effects in children, and suggest future directions for research.