And of the radon, what know?

Published on: 01/02/2017

The radon is a radioactive gas that when being inhaled can generate lung cancer because of the radiation that is produced in its disintegration. The World Health Organization (WHO) it considers the second pulmonary cancer cause, after the tobacco, and the first one in non-smokers. A recent report of the Ministry of Health Care “Mortality attributable to the exhibition to residential radon in Spain” it attributes to the radon 3.8% of deaths for lung cancer.

The radon is found in nature according to geological characteristics of the field. Most radon is generated by granitic subsoils as these are rich in uranium. That is why you must know the level of radon of the area in which you find.

You can consult the map of zoning of the radon of the Nuclear Safety Council for municipalities.

The risk of contracting lung cancer due to radon depends on:

  • The level of radon in your home or workplace.
  • The amount of time you spend in these.
  • If you are a smoker or have been a smoker.

Radon legislation

Directive 2013/59/Euratom of the Board of 5 December 2013 through which basic safety standards are established for the protection against the dangers derived from the exhibition to ionising radiations. The incorporation period expired in February 2018.

The European directive regulates so much the exhibition to ionising radiations in the field of medicine to improve the security of patients, health workers and teams, as occupational exhibitions and poblacionales to radiations and, of way expresses, to the radon.

This directive establishes a limit value for radon exposure of 300 Bq/m3 and the need of elaborating by member countries a National Plan against the Radon.

This directive has been surpassed in Spain in a fractionated way and in different times for:

  • Royal Decree 732/2019, of 20 December, through which the Construction technical code is modified (CTE), that it includes measures of fight against the radon.

It arranges the new section HS6: “Protection when dealing with the exhibition to the Radon” within basic healthiness documents of the CTE. It establishes statutory measures if the reference level is exceeded of 300 Bq/m3. Measures to limit the penetration of the radon in the buildings are established according to the risk level of radon of the municipality in which are placed:

1. Risk Areas I: between 300 and 600 Bq/m3

2. Risk Areas II: above 600 Bq/m3 

Municipalities appear related in the Appendix B. measures will be of undergoing repairs new application and in interventions in existing buildings, such as extensions, use or refurbishment changes. 

The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has published a guide entitled: “Rehabilitation measures against radon” (September 2020), to help to draughtsmen of works and people affected building users in the starting up of preventive measures that they appear in the CTE.

 

  • Royal Decree 1029/2022, of 20 December, through which the Regulations is approved on protection of the health against the risks derived from the exhibition to ionising radiations.

This standard repeals the Royal Decree 783/2001, on health protection against ionising radiations, with a field of application similar but updating it and adapting it to European levels of protection.  Emphasise that, with respect to the radon the European level of reference is adopted for the concentration of radon in annual average air of 300 Bq/m3, earlier 600 Bq/m3

The obligation of the Government is established of promote and approving a National Plan against the Radon, necessary to protect the health of the town and to reduce the risk that supposes the long-term exhibition to radon. Obligations are specified with regard to the fulfillment of this allowed reference level. In the case of occupational exhibitions to the radon, the annual dose level is established starting from which the exhibition of workers owe manage as a situation of exhibition planned.

In the Article 75, dedicated to the Obligations of the holder, affected work activities are specified, that they are the next ones:

a) subterranean Workplaces, such as works, tunnels, mines or caves.
b) Places where is processed, manipulate or it makes good use of subterranean origin water, such as thermal and spasactivities .
c) All workplaces placed at low plant slope or ground floor of municipal districts of priority activity.