The radon hazard in non - uranium European mines: Retrospective of a survey conducted between 1978 and 1982 in different mines across Europe and new results in France

From 1979 to 1982, a study of the hazard due to the natural radioactivity in non-uranium mines has been initiated by the CEC. The programme of the work involved coal, potash salt, fluors par, gypsum, clay, graphite, tungsten, antimony, bauxite, cassiterite, slate, iron, pyrites, lead-zinc, tin, silver-zinc, as well as gold mines, situated in Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. In all studies mines, a radiological and ventilation audit have been conducted and an individual dosimetry has been implemented for a group of a few tens of miners in some of the mines. An overview of the results is presented here, giving information about the radiological risk treatming the miner's health. The overview is completed with recent measurements made more recently, on a routine basis, in some French non-uranium mines. (author). 47 refs, 8 figs, 3 tabs