Radon levels and resulting effective doses of residents in Gornja Stubla at Kosovo applying dosimetric lung models based on ICRP 65 and ICRP 66 methodology

The town Gornja Stubla, situated in the South-West part of Kosovo, is a community with high indoor radon level due to its geochemical background. Radon activity concentration in indoor air has been measured by exposing the 960 track-etch detectors for one year, in 172 rooms of 65 dwellings. Annual averages of concentration ranged from 35 Bq/m3 to 6010 Bq/m3. In a first attempt, the effective doses of residents have been calculated applying the ICRP 65 methodology, based on the average radon concentration for the dwelling and for concentrations in the rooms of a dwelling in which they spend fractions of the entire time spent indoors. Both seasonal and annual doses have been calculated. The annual values were in the range of 0.6−107 mSv/a with an average value of 8.6 mSv/a. As nest step we considered that effective dose, being influenced by a number of different parameters and divided into subject and aerosols related parameters, is connected with two crucial parameters, namely, the Dose Conversion Factor (DCF) [mSv/WLM] for a particular person (accounting for real gender, age and physical activity level) and indoor radon concentration and its short lived progeny at field area. Therefore, software based on ICRP Publication 66 was developed for determination of effective dose per unit inhaled activity of radon progeny, DCF. According to the results of indoor radon measurements in the area of Gornja Stubla, the effective dose for its population was estimated by using the dosimetric lung model. The results, obtained according to ICRP 66, were compared with results calculated according to ICRP Publication 65