Evolution of radon dose evaluation

The historical change of radon dose evaluation is reviewed based on the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) reports. Since 1955, radon has been recognized as one of the important sources of exposure of the general public. However, it was not really understood that radon is the largest dose contributor until 1977 when a new concept of effective dose equivalent was introduced by International Commission on Radiological Protection. In 1982, the dose concept was also adapted by UNSCEAR and evaluated per caput dose from natural radiation. Many researches have been carried out since then. However, lots of questions have remained open in radon problems, such as the radiation weighting factor of 20 for alpha rays and the large discrepancy of risk estimation among dosimetric and epidemiological approaches. (author)