Luxembourg’s Ministry of Health has used European Radon Day to increase public awareness on the risks associated with exposure to radon, a natural radioactive gas which can accumulate in buildings.

In order to tackle the long-term risks of radon exposure, the Ministry of Health is in the process of identifying the areas in which the concentration of radon in several important buildings could exceed the national reference level.  

The development of this map documenting the total radon in the country forms part of one of the aspects of the national action plan which each EU Member State is obliged to establish in the framework of the 2013/59/Euratom directive, until February 2018.

In Luxembourg, radon is responsible for around 1/3 of the population’s exposure. According to recent scientific studies, the gas could play a role in the occurrence of between 5% and 10% of lung cancers, which is equivalent to around 20 cases per year in the Grand Duchy.

In order to see the extent of the issue of radon in Luxembourg, the Ministry of Health’s Division for Radioprotection (DRP) carried out a pilot study on around 200 houses in the Wahl municipality in the first quarter of 2016.

The study showed that almost 1/3 of private rooms studied in Wahl exceeded the national reference level (300 Bq/m3), and in 1% of houses, there was an extremely high concentration of radon (maximum of 2,700 Bq/m3). In such cases, it is estimated that inhabitants would be exposed to 40 mSv per year. The level of concentration in current rooms was 30% higher than that shown in results from 20 years ago.

Currently, the Ministry of Health’s DRP is in the process of carrying out individual consultations with the owners of houses with an elevated level of radon, often implementing simple yet efficient remedial techniques.

Moreover, as part of European Radon Day, the DRP has created a general information brochure “Radon in 10 questions” in both German and French in order to inform the public about the risks of radon exposure.

Photo by MSAN. From left to right: Patrick Majerus, Manager of the Division for Radioprotection; Lydia Mutsch, Minister of Health.