Roadmap for safer risk management of the environmental pollutant radon

Radon is a radioactive noble gas ubiquitously occurring in the earth's mantle as well as in ambient air and water. Although diseases associated with exposure to radon have been known since the Middle Ages, a causal association between radon and disease was only established in the middle of the last century. Due to the physical properties of the gas, prevention is aimed at minimizing exposure. A coordinated effort of the European Union to protect the population through uniform rules was instated by adopting the 2013/59/EURATOM directive from 5 December 2013. Transposed into national law, the German Radiation Protection Act provided that on 1 January 2021 the responsible federal states determined the areas in which the threshold value of the activity concentration of radon in the air exceeds 300 Bq/m(3) as an annual average, based on an exposure map. This article describes the progress towards a more comprehensive protection against the dangers of exposure to radon for the German population.

Automated summary

This article describes the progress towards a more comprehensive protection against the dangers of exposure to radon for the German population, aiming to minimize exposure risks through coordinated efforts and uniform rules.