Radon monitoring and applications in Algeria

Radon gas and radon daughters monitoring finds its importance not only in radiation protection where they have been associated with increased lung cancer risks for underground miners, increased exposure of the public in general due to radon emanation from the ground, building materials, water, etc... and concentration inside dwellings due to reduced ventilation for energy savings, but also in a variety of fields such as volcano eruptions and earthquakes prediction, uranium prospection and uranium content assessment as well as in several other fields of science and technology. Damage track detectors have made possible the exploration of all these fields making use of simple and low cost devices. In this paper we present an over view of the research and development activities in Algeria related to radon monitoring and applications. (author). 10 refs