The Castleisland Radon Survey - follow-up to the discovery of a house with extremely high radon concentrations in County Kerry (SW Ireland)

In July 2003, a house with a seasonally adjusted annual average radon concentration of 49 000 Bq m(-3) was identified near Castleisland in County Kerry ( SW Ireland). The possibility that other houses with similar extreme radon concentrations could be present in the surrounding area triggered the setting up of a localised radon survey, the so-called 'Castleisland Radon Survey' (CRS). To this end, approximately 2500 householders living in four 10 x 10 km(2) grid squares from the Irish grid closest to the town of Castleisland were invited to participate. Four hundred and eighteen householders responded to the invitation (17% response rate) and 383 home results were used for further analysis. In the 400 km(2) encompassing the four studied grid squares, 14% of the homes were found to have a seasonally adjusted annual average radon concentration above the national reference level of 200 Bq m(-3) while 2% above 800 Bq m(-3). An average radon concentration of 147 Bq m(-3) was calculated. This can be compared with the average radon concentration of 98 Bq m(-3) calculated for the same four grid squares on the basis of 80 measurements carried out during the Irish National Radon Survey (NRS) which was conducted between 1992 and 1997. The fourth highest radon concentration (6184 Bq m(-3)) and three of the ten highest ever measured in Ireland were all identified during the CRS. This shows that localised and targeted radon surveys are an invaluable tool for the identification of homes at highest risk from high radon concentrations. Two of the four grid squares investigated during the CRS are currently designated as high radon areas (defined as areas where 10% or more of all houses are predicted to exceed 200 Bq m(-3)) as predicted by the NRS. A thorough statistical analysis of the CRS and NRS data was carried out and indicated that both datasets could be merged and used to refine the original NRS predictions. The results indicate that two of the four studied grid squares could potentially be redesignated. The practical feasibility and overall benefit of updating the Irish radon map in light of this analysis is described.