Legislation on the radon
Directive 2013/59/Euratom of the Council on 5 December, 2013, setting out basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation.
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. The 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 regulations repeals the Royal Decree 783/2001, on health protection against ionising radiations, with a field of similar application 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 should 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 activities thermal and spas.
c) All the workplaces placed at low plant slope or ground floor of municipal districts of priority activity.