Article
Lung cancer mortality attributable to residential radon in Germany
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Authors
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Felix Heinzl
- Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, Oberschleißheim, Germany
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Maria Schnelzer
- Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, Oberschleißheim, Germany
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Peter Scholz-Kreisel
- Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, Oberschleißheim, Germany
| Published: | September 6, 2024 |
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Outline
Text
Introduction: Radon is one of the most important risk factors for lung cancer after smoking. An illustrative way of describing the lung cancer risk of residential radon is to give the number of so-called population-attributable lung cancer deaths caused by radon in homes, since this indicator can help policy makers and the public to understand the health impact of radon exposure. In 2006, it was calculated that around 1,900 lung cancer deaths per year are attributable to radon in homes in whole Germany [1]. Some of the data used to calculate the number of attributable deaths have changed since then. Thus, the talk presents the population-attributable fraction (PAF) and the number of lung cancer deaths attributable to residential radon in Germany and its federal states per year using updated data and an advanced method of calculation.
Methods: Data on lung cancer mortality (2018–2022), smoking behavior (2017), and the estimated distribution of radon concentrations in homes in Germany (based on a radon measurement survey from 2019 to 2021) are used [2]. The considered risk model is derived from the pooled European residential radon study [3], assuming that the excess relative lung cancer risk is increased by 16% per 100 Becquerel per cubic meter long-term radon concentration. In contrast to the PAF approximation formula mostly used in the literature, which only takes into account the average radon exposure in a population, we applied and enhanced the approach of Menzler et al. (2008), which incorporates the entire distribution of radon exposure and leads to more accurate results.
Results: Compared to Menzler et al. [1], the analyses show a small increase in PAF and a substantial increase in radon-induced lung cancer deaths in Germany. Most radon-attributable lung cancer deaths are current smokers and ex-smokers. However, a considerable proportion is also found among never smokers.
Conclusion: The slightly higher PAF compared to Menzler et al. [1] is mainly due to the improved knowledge about the residential radon distribution in Germany, which yielded higher radon values. The higher radon levels as well as the increase in annual number of lung cancer deaths over time in Germany lead to an increase in the number of radon-attributable lung cancer deaths.
The results confirm that radon in homes is a relevant risk factor for lung cancer and emphasize the importance of protection measures against radon in Germany for all population groups.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
The authors declare that an ethics committee vote is not required.
References
- 1.
- Menzler S, Piller G, Palacios M, Schaffrath Rosario A, Wichmann H-E, Kreienbrock L: Population attributable fraction for lung cancer due to residential radon in Switzerland and Germany. Health Phys. 2008;95:179–89 DOI: 10.1097/01.HP.0000309769.55126.03
- 2.
- Petermann E, Bossew P, Kemski J, Gruber V, Suhr N, Hoffmann B: A new high-resolution indoor radon map for Germany using amachine learning based probabilistic exposure model [Preprint]. arXiv. 2023. arXiv:2310.11143. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2310.11143
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- Darby S, Hill D, Auvinen A, Barros-Dios J, Baysson H, Bochicchio F, et al.: Radon in homes and risk of lung cancer: Collaborative analysis of individual data from 13 European case-control studies. BMJ. 2005;330:223-8. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.38308.477650.63
