Uncertainty Analysis of the Effective Dose per Unit Exposure from Radon Progeny and Implications for ICRP Risk-Weighting Factors

The International Commission on Radiological Protection has recently endorsed a new model of the human respiratory tract. This model has been used to calculate the effective dose per unit exposure to radon progeny in mines or homes. The resulting effective dose per unit exposure is between 2 and 3 times that suggested by epidemiological approaches: dosimetry estimates are around 15 mSv per WLM, while epidemiological estimates are around 5 mSv per WLM. In an attempt to reconcile these two estimates, a detailed examination of the underlying assumptions made in the dosimetric approach has been performed