A SHORT SUMMARY OF PAST AND RECENT ACTIVITIES ON PROTECTION FROM RADON EXPOSURE CARRIED OUT BY THE ITALIAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH

Abstract

The Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità ‒ ISS) has a long experience of activities concerning protection from radon exposure (measuring techniques, surveys in dwellings and other environments, public information, training courses, epidemiological studies and risk evaluation, etc.) with the first activities dating back to the eighties. On the basis of this expertise, the ISS has also contributed to radon policies and regulations, in particular to the development of the first Italian National Radon Action Plan (INRAP) in 2002 and its coordination in the following years, as well as to international regulations and recommendations. Many activities have been carried out with significant collaborations not only with Italian agencies and institutes, but also with some other countries as well as with international organizations (e.g. WHO). In this paper, a short summary of the past activities carried out by the ISS on several radon issues is presented. Moreover, some of the recent and current activities and projects are shortly described, taking into account the requirements of the Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom, including design of radon surveys, quality of both active and passive measurements, evaluation of actual public exposure, and cost-effectiveness evaluations.
Keywords: radon, policy, surveys, measurement techniques, risk evaluation.