Surveys of radon levels in U.S. homes as a test of the linear-no threshold dose-response relationship for radiation carcinogenesis

Induction of lung cancer by exposure to radon daughters, applied at high doses to miners and at low doses to exposures in homes, provides a very stringent and sensitive test of the linear-no threshold dose-response relationship for high-LET radiation. In particular, that relationship predicts that a substantial fraction of lung cancer among non-smokers is due to average radon levels. It therefore predicts an easily observable elevation of lung cancer rates in areas where radon levels are many times average, and a strong correlation between average radon levels and lung cancer rates when other factors are kept constant. A substantial amount of data on these matters is already available, and surveys are being made to determine average radon levels in about 50 counties plus 5 whole states to greatly increase it. Broad surveys of the US to find new areas of high radon levels are also in progress