Airborne 222Rn concentration in Cypriot houses

Studies from a pilot survey in 89 houses in Cyprus show that the arithmetic mean for the housing stock is about 7 Bq m-3 and the annual effective dose equivalent to the population from radon progeny is < 330 microSv y-1. Four houses have values > 30 Bq m-3, corresponding to two standard deviations from the mean value. The highest value recorded was 78 Bq m-3. These results are considerably lower than those of other countries reported in the literature. Radon concentrations in houses is correlated to the local geology. The highest concentrations are in houses built on Chalk formations with an average value of 9.29 Bq m-3 (standard deviation 19.69 Bq m-3). The lowest concentrations are in houses built on Olivine Basalt formations with an average value of 0.50 Bq m-3 (standard deviation 0.80 Bq m-3).