Radon concentration in self-bottled mineral spring waters as a possible public health issue

Since 2013, the Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom has been regulating the content of radioactive substances in water intended for human consumption. However, mineral waters are exempted from this regulation, including self-bottled springs waters, where higher radon concentration are expected. Therefore, a systematic survey has been conducted on all the 33 mineral spring waters of Lazio (a region of Central Italy) in order to assess if such waters, when self-bottled, may be of concern for public health. Waters have been sampled in two different ways to evaluate the impact of bottling on radon concentration. Water sampling was possible for 20 different spring waters, with 6 samples for each one. The results show that 2 (10%) of measured mineral spring waters returned radon concentrations higher than 100 Bq L−1, i.e., the parametric value established by the Council Directive. These results, if confirmed by other surveys involving a higher number of mineral spring waters, would suggest regulating also these waters, especially in countries like Italy for which: (i) mineral water consumption is significant; (ii) mineral concession owners generally allow the consumers to fill bottles and containers, intended for transport and subsequent consumption, directly from public fountains or from fountains within the plant; (iii) the consumers’ habit of drinking self-bottled mineral water is widespread

An evaluation of thoron (and radon) equilibrium factorclose towalls based on long-term measurements in dwellings

Thoron gas and its progeny behave quite differently in room environments, owing to the difference in their half-lives; therefore, it is important to measure simultaneously gas and progeny concentrations to estimate the time-integrated equilibrium factor. Furthermore, thoron concentration strongly depends on the distance from the source, i.e. generally walls in indoor environments. In the present work, therefore, the measurements of both thoron and radon gas and their progeny concentrations were consistently carried out close to the walls, in 43 dwellings located in the Sokobanja municipality, Serbia. Three different types of instruments have been used in the present survey to measure the time-integrated thoron and radon gas and their progeny concentrations simultaneously. The equilibrium factor for thoron measured ‘close to the wall’, FW Tn, ranged from 0.001 to 0.077 with a geometric mean (GM) [geometric standard deviation (GSD)] of 0.006 (2.2), whereas the equilibrium factor for radon, FRn, ranged from 0.06 to 0.95 with a GM (GSD) of 0.23 (2.0)

Metodo e apparato di rilevamento della frazione di origine remota di radon presente in un sito di misura

Il sistema consente di monitorare con continuità concentrazioni di radon e di parametri continui, come temperatura, pressione e umidità ed ogni altra grandezza che un opportuno trasduttore possa convertire in tensione. Esso dispone di una camera a raccolta elettrostatica appositamente realizzata, in cui avviene la rivelazione spettrometrica dei discendenti del radon e del thoron, che possono agevolmente venire riconosciuti e registrati. Questa peculiarità rende il sistema uno strumento unico per molte applicazioni sia di laboratorio (studio dell’emanazione del radon dai materiali porosi), che in campo (monitoraggio del radon proveniente dal sottosuolo). Un software appositamente progettato consente una semplice gestione del sistema da remoto; la sua dotazione di un’interfaccia ethernet ne rende possibile il pilotaggio in rete e offre la possibilità di realizzare e gestire reti di stazioni. Lo strumento è al centro di una metodologia per lo studio del radon nel suolo che ne permette la determinazione al netto delle influenze delle condizioni ambientali e delle caratteristiche del sito di misura. Ciò avviene attraverso la misura continua dei parametri climatici, la caratterizzazione del sito e l'applicazione di una idonea metodologia di calcolo

Experimental evaluation of ageing and fading effects over 3, 6, and 12 months for three radon concentration measurement techniques based on nuclear track detectors

Evaluation of the annual average radon concentrations in dwellings and workplaces, as required by the recent international regulations, is commonly performed using techniques based on passive devices containing nuclear track detectors and tracks read-out systems. These techniques could be affected by ageing of the detector material and fading of the tracks, whose net effect is a detector sensitivity reduction. Therefore, an experimental study was carried out in order to evaluate ageing and fading effects in typical indoor environments for three different techniques used in our laboratory: i) two devices based on CR-39 materials produced by different suppliers (i.e., Intercast Spa and Radosys Ltd) with two different fully automated image analysis systems used for trackscounting; ii) a device based on LR 115 as detector material whose tracks are counted with a spark counter. The study was designed to evaluate ageing and fading for exposure periods of 3, 6, and 12 months using AlphaGUARD active monitors as reference detectors. This study represents an extension of a previous one – limited to two of the three techniques considered in this study – aimed to evaluate ageing and fading effects for measurement period of 12 months only. The results show that ageing and fading do not significantly affect the response of the technique based on LR 115 detectors, whereas an underestimation of the actual radon exposure was found for the two techniques based on CR-39 detectors. In particular, measurements performed over a single period of 12 months have a sensitivity reduction of about 10% and 20%, for techniques based on CR-39 Intercast Spa and Radosys Ltd, respectively

Some practical improvements of radon concentration measurement protocols to reduce costs and environmental impact

In the next years, due to the requirements included in the 2013/59/ Euratom Directive, the number of radon concentration measurements performed using solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) will increase and so their costs and environmental impact. For this reason, on the basis of some experimental tests, arises the need to consider within measurement protocols the possibility to reuse holders of radon concentration measuring devices and to optimize the use of chemicals for detectors etching