Model for assessing radiation dose to epithelial cells of the human respiratory tract from radon progeny

A computational model was developed to evaluate radiation doses to sensitive cells from exposure to radon progeny throughout human bronchial epithelium. The model incorporated current information on nasal and oral filtration efficiencies for unattached radon progeny, characteristics of bronchial deposition by diffusive and inertial processes, mucous clearance and possible transfer of radon progeny to the airway epithelium, locations of target nuclei of secretory and basal cells in different regions of the bronchial tree epithelium, and other features. The model is useful for evaluating absorbed doses to various populations of target cell nuclei, the associated microdosimetric probability densities in specific energy, and the likelihood that target nuclei are hit one or more times by alpha-particle tracks. The model was applied to extrapolating lung cancer risks observed in underground miners to the general population exposed to low-level radon progeny in indoor home environments. The effect of increasing exposure rates by one and two orders of magnitude in both environments was modeled to determine the frequency of radiation events in target cell nuclei. The implications of dosimetric modeling for lung cancer risk analysis were also examined. 28 refs., 5 figs., 5 tabs