Seasonal Variation of Indoor Radon Concentration in the Tropics: Comparative studies between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Kerala, India

The radiation dose received by man from indoor radon and its progeny is the largest at more than 50% of total dose received. The seasonal variation of indoor radon concentration in Kerala, India and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were studied. The Southwest coast of the Kerala state in India is known to have very high levels of natural background radiation owing to the rare earths rich monazite sand available in large amount. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia used to be a famous tin mining area where it was done using open cast system. One-year measurements of radon concentration in houses were done for these two regions. It was found that there is considerable seasonal variation in the levels of radon in Kerala but the variation in Kuala Lumpur is only less than 10%.