Attributable mortality to radon exposure in Galicia, Spain. Is it necessary to act in the face of this health problem?

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Agustín Montes-Martínez¹  Alberto Ruano-Ravina¹  Juan M Barros-Dios²  Mónica Pérez-Ríos³ 

[1] Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela. Santiago de Compostela, Spain;CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, CIBERESP, Spain;Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela. Santiago de Compostela, Spain;CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, CIBERESP, Spain;Preventive Medicine Unit, Santiago de Compostela Clinic University Hospital, Santiago de Compostela, Spain;Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela. Santiago de Compostela, Spain;Epidemiology Section. Department of Public Health, Galician Regional Authority, Spain;CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, CIBERESP, Spain;

关键词: Radon;    Radon Concentration;    Indoor Radon;    Lung Cancer Mortality;    Lung Cancer Case;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-256

 received in 2008-09-17, accepted in 2010-05-18,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRadon is the second risk factor for lung cancer after tobacco consumption and therefore it is necessary to know the burden of disease due to its exposure. The objective of this study is to estimate radon-attributable lung cancer mortality in Galicia, a high emission area located at the Northwest Spain.MethodsA prevalence-based attribution method was applied. Prevalence of tobacco use and radon exposure were obtained from a previously published study of the same area. Attributable mortality was calculated for each of six possible risk categories, based on radon exposure and smoking status. Two scenarios were used, with 37 Bq/m3 and 148 Bq/m3 as the respective radon exposure thresholds. As the observed mortality we used lung cancer mortality for 2001 from the Galician mortality registry.ResultsMortality exclusively attributable to radon exposure ranged from 3% to 5% for both exposure thresholds, respectively. Attributable mortality to combined exposure to radon and smoking stood at around 22% for exposures above 148 Bq/m3. Applying the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level, radon has a role in 25% of all lung cancers.ConclusionsAlthough the estimates have been derived from a study with a relatively limited sample size, these results highlight the importance of radon exposure as a cause of lung cancer and its effect in terms of disease burden. Radon mitigation activities in the study area must therefore be enforced.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Pérez-Ríos et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.