Status of the European Indoor Radon Map

In 2005, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a survey [1] of Rn monitoring efforts made in European countries; it showed a colourful, but disparate mosaic of approaches with hardly comparable results. As a consequence of differences in policy and legislation between countries, different quantities are assessed, and these are mapped in a rather wide variety of different methods, tailored to serve individual needs and conditions. As part of its mission to collect information, make results comparable and present them on a European scale, the JRC launched the idea of European Rn maps, both indoor and geogenic, given the high radiological importance of exposure to Rn. At the seminal conference in Prague, September 2006, the participants agreed, as a first step, on an indoor Rn map, based on individual measurements in ground floors of buildings. The national participants aggregate their data into cells of size 10 * 10 km², which are aligned to a common European metric coordinate grid. The cell data are sent to the JRC, where they are collected and mapped. Given the size and complications of the endeavour and differences in data coverage, processing and representation between the countries, the map is far from complete. We present the current status of the map, based on contributions from participating countries. We draw some preliminary conclusions, and discuss certain statistical procedures which we have applied for ¿ so far only roughly, given the fragmentary state ¿ testing the plausibility of data and compatibility between participants. We also discuss some remaining issues, such as the minimum number of observations needed per grid cell to make meaningful estimates, and how to represent areas with very few data points, or even where no data can be expected because of restricted access. Seasonal variations in the data should also be compensated for. Finally, there are countries that have data available only at the local level or in their national projection systems, and these should be aggregated and converted into the common European grid.

TOLLEFSEN Tore;  DE CORT Marc;  BOSSEW Peter; 

2009-06-19

Polish Academy of Sciences

JRC52213

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC52213,