Francesco Bochicchio

• Master's Degree in Physics
• Head of Department at Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health)

The mathematical modelling represents one of the main possibilities to assess the radon gas coming out from building structures in a dwelling, especially in preventive strategies. The formulations available depends on environmental conditions and building characteristics and they might require a wide set input parameters as well as significant comp...

Radon is a natural and radioactive noble gas, which may accumulate indoors and cause lung cancers after long term-exposure. Being a decay product of Uranium 238, it originates from the ground and is spatially variable. Many environmental (i.e., geology, tectonic, soils) and architectural factors (i.e., building age, floor) influence its presence in...

Background Although data on outdoor gamma radiation are available for many countries, they have generally been obtained with measurements performed in undisturbed environments instead of in urban areas where most of the population lives. Only one large national survey, with on-site measurements in urban areas, has been identified worldwide, probabl...

Population exposure to indoor radon has been proven to increase the risk of lung cancer, and it is considered a leading cause after tobacco smoking. Due to the relatively low outdoor activity concentration, most of the exposure to radon occurs indoors. Radon is generated mostly by the rocks that contain radium-226 either in the soil or in the build...

Assessing the radon activity that exhales from building structures is crucial to identify the best strategies to prevent radon from entering a building or reducing its concentration in the inhabited spaces. The direct measurement is extremely difficult, so the common approach has consisted in developing models describing the radon migration and exh...

Indoor radon levels in dwellings are typically higher in cold months than in warm ones. The indoor radon concentration might experience an inverse seasonal behaviour – i.e., radon levels much higher in summer than in winter – under specific circumstances. In the framework of a study on long-term variations of annual radon concentration carried out...

Protection of the population and of workers from exposure to radon is a unique challenge in radiation protection. Many coordinated actions and a variety of expertise are needed. Initially, a National Radon Action Plan (NRAP) has been developed and implemented by some countries, while it is currently recommended by international organizations (e.g.,...

Background: As a major cause of lung cancer after smoking, indoor radon is a hazard for human health. Key steps of radon surveys are numerous and include metrology, survey design, development of maps, communication of results to stakeholders, etc. The Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM introduced new challenges for European Union Member States, such...

The performance of continuous radon monitors (CRMs) is usually evaluated under controlled conditions in a radon chamber during calibrations or intercomparison exercises. The impact of thoron on CRMs response is rarely evaluated; in case the evaluation is performed, it is carried out in a controlled atmosphere with relatively constant, homogeneous,...

For the implementation of the requirements in the Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom (2013 EUBSS), the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is generally considered a useful tool to compare different radon policies aimed at reducing radon exposure both at home and at work. In the framework of the EU funded RADPAR project, a methodology to perform CEA an...

For workplaces where significant diurnal variations in radon concentrations are likely, measurements to evaluate average radon concentration during working hours could be useful for planning an optimized protection of workers according to the 2013/59/Euratom Directive. However, very few studies on this subject, generally limited to periods of few w...

Uncertainty on long-term average radon concentration has a large impact on lung cancer risk assessment in epidemiological studies. The uncertainty can be estimated by year-to-year radon concentration variability, however few data are available. In Italy a study has been planned and conducted to evaluate year-to-year radon variability over several y...

Electrostatic precipitation is a well-known technology to reduce public exposure to radon daughters. A custom electrostatic precipitator (ESP) prototype has been designed and built to study the effectiveness of such a removal technique in specific workplaces having low-to-zero air exchange rates with external environments. An appropriate mathematic...

Many international and national regulations on radon in workplaces, including the 2013/59/Euratom Council Directive, are based on the annual average of indoor radon concentration, assuming it is representative of the long-term average. However, a single annual radon concentration measurement does not reflect annual variations (i.e. year-to-year var...

The estimation of the indoor radon exposure of the population of a country is generally carried out by the means of surveys designed in order to have sample representativeness as a target (population-based survey). However, the estimates of radon concentration distributions could be affected by biases if sampling was not random or in case of differ...

The emanometry test method is one of the detection techniques of radon in water satisfying requirements of Directive 2013/51/Euratom with regards to the detection limit. Quality assurance (QA) procedures were developed and implemented for a measuring system relying on such a technique. These procedures mainly address the following: (i) the assembli...

The requirements about radon measurements in schools and public buildings included in most of the national and international legislations are generally restricted to all the rooms located at the ground floor and basement, assuming the soil beneath the building as the main source of indoor radon. In order to verify such an assumption for small build...

Natural ionizing radiation is considered as the largest contributor to the collective effective dose received by the world population. The human population is continuously exposed to ionizing radiation from several natural sources that can be classified into two broad categories: high-energy cosmic rays incident on the Earth’s atmosphere and releas...

This document, titled “Report on indoor and geogenic radon surveys in Europe, including their strategies, the methodologies employed, inconsistencies in the results, and potential methodologies to harmonise data and reduce inconsistencies” represents the deliverable D3 of the MetroRADON project. It reports the results of the Activities developed i...

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 t...

Le prestazioni dei monitor attivi per la misura della concentrazione di radon in continuo (Continuous Radon Monitors-CRMs) sono generalmente valutate (ad esempio, in termini di accuratezza, linearità della risposta e influenza dei differenti parametri climatici) in condizioni controllate all'interno di camere radon, spesso anche nell'ambito di inte...

La concentrazione di radon indoor segue generalmente cicli stagionali con livelli più alti nei mesi "freddi" e più bassi in quelli "caldi". La significatività della stagionalità che ne consegue dipende principalmente dalla temperatura e dalle condizioni climatiche dell'area; in particolare dai cambiamenti di quei parametri atmosferici che governano...

In the next years, due to the requirements included in the 2013/59/Euratom Directive, the number of radon concentration measurements performed using solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) will increase and so their costs and environmental impact. For this reason, on the basis of some experimental tests, arises the need to consider within meas...

Since 2013, the Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom has been regulating the content of radioactive substances in water intended for human consumption. However, mineral waters are exempted from this regulation, including self-bottled springs waters, where higher radon concentration are expected. Therefore, a systematic survey has been conducted on all...

For many people, radon in dwellings is the largest contributor to their lifetime exposure to radiation. Requirement 50 of IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 3, Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards, places a responsibility on governments (i.e. national authorities) to “provide information...

In Italy, activities aimed to reduce risks attributable to radon exposure in dwellings and workplaces have been performed since the eighties, and their number sensibly increased after the start-up of the Italian National Radon Action Plan (INRAP) in the mid-00s. In the view of the forthcoming new regulation, these activities have been critically re...

Outdoor radon concentration contributes to indoor radon levels, generally causing a shift from lognormal distribution of measured radon concentration data distribution, and it makes more challenging the estimation of radon distribution parameters on the basis of the lognormal assumption. In particular, lognormal assumption with no correction could...

Lo stretto legame tra le finalità del Sservizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) e quelle della protezione dalle radiazioni è stato ben sintetizzato nel corso del convegno nazionale “La radioprotezione e il servizio sanitario nazionale” svoltosi presso l’ISS proprio nel 1978, anno di emanazione della legge istitutiva del SSN. Nell’aprire il convegno, il P...

International recommendations and regulations require developing of National Radon Action Plans (NRAPs) to effectively manage the protection of workers and population from radon exposure. In Italy, a NRAP was published in 2002 and several activities have been carried out in this framework. Information and data regarding these and previous activitie...

Protection from radon exposure in workplaces and dwellings, as included in the latest relevant international regulations and recommendations, is based on the new concept of ‘reference level’ whose meaning is significantly different from that of previ- ous ‘action level’ concept. In fact, whereas remedial actions had to be considered only for radon...

This paper presents indoor radon concentrations and specific activities of natural radionuclides measured in soils of Kosovo and Metohija. The measurements of radon concentration were performed during two consecutive 6-month periods in two rooms of 63 houses using CR-39 detectors. The annual radon concentration ranged from 30 to 810 Bq m⁻³ with the...

Recognized as a significant health hazard, radon (Rn) has been given increasing attention for years. Surveys of different kinds have been performed in many countries to assess the intensity and the geographical extent of possible Rn problems. Common surveys cover mainly dwellings, the indoor place with highest occupancy, and schools, where people s...

Measurements covering a 1 year period are often used and required by legislation to assess the average radon concentration within a house or a workplace. This kind of long-term measurement-generally carried out with techniques based on nuclear track detectors-can be affected by a reduction in sensitivity due to ageing and fading of latent tracks du...

Conclusioni Questo lavoro, frutto di una collaborazione fra ARPAT e l’Istituto Superiore di Sanità, presenta la prima analisi statistica dei dati di concentrazione di radon condotta in Italia per lo studio dei fattori che possono influire sui livelli medi di radon negli ambienti di lavoro, confrontando i risultati con quelli ottenuti, con lo stesso...

The risk of lung cancer mortality up to 75 years of age due to radon exposure has been estimated for both male and female continuing, ex- and never-smokers, based on various radon risk models and exposure scenarios. We used risk models derived from (i) the BEIR VI analysis of cohorts of radon-exposed miners, (ii) cohort and nested case-control anal...

Background: Parental smoking and exposure of the mother or the child to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as risk factors for Acute non-Lymphocytic Leukemia (AnLL) were investigated. Methods: Incident cases of childhood AnLL were enrolled in 14 Italian Regions during 1998-2001. We estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) c...

As part of a survey on concentrations of radon, thoron and their decay products in different indoor environments of the Balkan region involving international collaboration, measurements were performed in 43 schools from 5 municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia. The time-integrated radon and thoron gas concentrations (CRn and CTn) were measured...

In recent years, international organisations involved in radiation protection and public health have produced new guidance, recommendations and requirements aiming better protection from radon exposure. These organisations have often worked in close collaboration in order to facilitate the establishment of harmonised standards. This paper deals wit...

Results from epidemiological studies on lung cancer and radon exposure in dwellings and mines led to a significant revision of recommendations and regulations of international organisations, such as WHO, IAEA, Nordic Countries, European Commission. Within the European project RADPAR, scientists from 18 institutions of 14 European countries worked t...

Thoron gas and its progeny behave quite differently in room environments, owing to the difference in their half-lives; therefore, it is important to measure simultaneously gas and progeny concentrations to estimate the time-integrated equilibrium factor. Furthermore, thoron concentration strongly depends on the distance from the source, i.e. genera...

Unlabelled: In order to optimize the design of a national survey aimed to evaluate radon exposure of children in schools in Serbia, a pilot study was carried out in all the 334 primary schools of 13 municipalities of Southern Serbia. Based on data from passive measurements, rooms with annual radon concentration >300 Bq/m(3) were found in 5% of sch...

Reliable, comparable and 'fit for purpose' results are essential requirements for any decision based on analytical measurements. For the analyst, the availability of tested and validated sampling and analytical procedures is an extremely important tool for carrying out such measurements. For maximum utility, such procedures should be comprehensive,...

Objectives Leukaemia is the most common cancer in children, but its aetiology is still poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that traffic-related air pollution is associated with paediatric leukaemia because of chronic exposure to several potential carcinogens. Methods The Italian SETIL study (Study on the aetiology of lymphohematopoietic mal...

Between 2008 and 2011 a survey of radon ((222)Rn) was performed in schools of several districts of Southern Serbia. Some results have been published previously (Žunić et al., 2010; Carpentieri et al., 2011; Žunić et al., 2013). This article concentrates on the geographical distribution of the measured Rn concentrations. Applying geostatistical meth...

Representative national surveys in dwellings are important to unbiasedly evaluate the exposure of the general population to radon. In Italy, a representative national survey was conducted from 1989 to 1996, which involved about 5600 dwellings in 232 towns. Later on, some Regions carried out more detailed surveys, but a new national survey in dwelli...

Pooled analyses of epidemiological case--control studies on lung cancer and residential radon have shown that radon exposure in dwellings increases lung cancer risk, and that the increase is statistically significant also for prolonged exposures to low-medium level of radon concentration, i.e. levels commonly found in many dwellings. In this paper,...

Some previous studies on radon concentration in dwellings of some areas of Kosovo and Metohija have revealed a high average radon concentration, even though the detectors were exposed for three months only. In order to better design a larger study in this region, the an- nual measurements in 25 houses were carried out as a pilot study. For each hou...

Some previous studies on radon concentration in dwellings of some areas of Kosovo and Metohija have revealed a high average radon concentration, even though the detectors were exposed for three months only. In order to better design a larger study in this region, the annual measurements in 25 houses were carried out as a pilot study. For each house...

As a part of the national survey of natural radioactivity in The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, indoor thoron gas concentration was measured in 300 dwellings during one year, from December 2008 till December 2009 using passive discriminative radonethoron detectors. Detectors were deployed at a distance of >50 cm from walls in order to be le...

In this paper the results of radon concentration measurements performed in 207 schools in 7 communities of Southern Serbia are presented. The annual radon concentration varied from 17 Bqm-3 to 428 Bq m-3 with a median value of 96 Bq m-3. The arithmetic mean (AM) of the 207 annual averages was 118 Bq m-3 with a standard deviation (SD) of 78 Bq m-3....

Come interpretare le dosi da radiazioni e valutarne i rischi, inclusi quelli per la popolazione giapponese più esposta alla radioattività liberata dalla centrale di Fukushima.

The goals of the previous research project (2006-2010) and current one (2011-2014), funded by the Serbian Ministry of Science, now Ministry of Education and Science, is the systematic indoor radon survey in elementary schools of Serbia. This survey has been under way since 2008 through an international collaboration, involving so far 340 schools in...

Extensive radon surveys have been carried out in many countries only in dwellings, whereas surveys in workplaces are rather sparse and generally restricted to specific workplaces/activities, e.g. schools, spas and caves. Moreover, radon-prone areas are generally defined on the basis of radon surveys in dwellings, while radon regulations use this co...

In an international collaboration, a long-term radon concentration survey was carried out in schools of Southern Serbia with radon detectors prepared, etched and read-out in Italy. In such surveys it is necessary to evaluate measurement precision in field conditions, and to check whether quality assurance protocols were effective in keeping uncerta...

On the basis of recent epidemiological findings, many international and national organisations have revised their recommendations and regulations on radon exposure in dwellings and workplaces, or are in the process to do it. In particular, new recommendations and regulations were recently published (or are going to be) by World Health Organization,...

A roundtable discussion was made at the end of the workshop. All the presentations were summarised in this discussion. It involved measurement techniques, quality assurance and dose assessment and health effects of thoron and its progeny. In particular, major epidemiological studies may be affected by thoron interference in radon measurements. Sinc...

A systematic indoor radon survey in elementary schools of Serbia is underway since 2008. Its current first phase covers all elementary schools in predominantly rural communities of Southern Serbia. The design of the survey, its implementation and the current state of its realization is shortly described. Part of this paper is devoted to discussion...

Radon concentration in indoor air has been measured in many countries in a large number of buildings – mainly in houses but also in apartments and workplaces – mostly as a result of the application of radon policies and regulation requirements. However, few systematic analyses are available on radon concentration variations within buildings and bet...

Passive devices based on SSNTDs (Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors) are widely used to measure radon concentration in indoor air. These devices often include a filter or other types of barrier to prevent the sampling of decay products. However, such filters and barriers have different degrees of effectiveness in preventing thoron from entering th...

Based on results of fieldwork in the Balkan Region of Serbia from 2005 to 2007, soil gas radon and thoron concentrations as well as gamma dose rates were measured. Campaigns were conducted in two different geological regions: Niska Banja, considered a high natural radiation area, and Obrenovac around the TentB Thermal Power Plant (TPP), a low natur...

The paper deals with a specific aspect of a general survey, that is being carried out during last ten years in several regions of Serbia (former Yugoslavia, former Serbia and Montenegro) to assess population exposure to natural radioactivity based on geochemical and integrative pattern research approach. The originality regarding this work is relat...

Radon concentration in air is subject to significant variations at different time scales, owing to several factors. In general, the shorter the time period considered, the larger the variations in radon concentration, e.g., day-to-day variations are usually higher than month-to-month variations. An average over 12 consecutive months is generally co...

A national survey has been carried out to measure radon concentration in a large sample of Telecom-Italia small underground inspection rooms, which form a particularly dense net in urban areas. Measuring radon in such underground places is interesting both for a possible contribution to radon mapping activities and to evaluate workers exposures. Ra...

The paper deals with a specific aspect of a general survey, that is being carried out during last ten years in several regions of Serbia (former Yugoslavia, former Serbia and Montenegro) to assess population exposure to natural radioactivity based on geochemical and integrative pattern research approach. The originality regarding this work is relat...

Recent epidemiological results have shown consistent statistically significant increases of lung cancer risk due to exposure to radon in dwellings at moderate levels of exposure, and a strong synergism with cigarette smoking. These results are summarized and discussed in relation to their possible implications for the regulatory control of radon an...

Radiation protection policies and regulations are based on the concept of effective dose. Effective dose is a (non measurable) quantity that is proportional to the risk due to the exposure to ionizing radiation that produced that value of effective dose. A single risk coefficient is used by ICRP, and such coefficient is an average over population c...

In the European Union lung cancer death is the most common cause (circa 20%) of total cancer deaths. For 2006 it is estimated that 236,000 lung cancer deaths occurred in the EU 25 with the majority of these being due to active cigarette smoking. From the pooling of 13 residential radon epidemiological studies in 9 EU countries it has been estimated...

The first radon soil gas survey in Serbia, using passive detectors (SSNTD, CR-39), was carried out in June 2005 at field sites in Niška Banja town. The aim of the survey was to identify risk zones characterised by high levels of this radioactive gas. Radon measurements were made at the depth of 50 cm, in the ground according to a systematic grid pa...

In Niška Banja, a comparison was made between two retrospective radon measuringmethods and contemporary radon measurements. The two retrospective methods derive the radon concentrations that occurred in dwellings over longer periods in the past, based on the amount of 210Po on the surface of glass objects (surface traps, ST) or in the bulk of porou...

A radon survey has been carried out around the town of Niška Banja (Serbia) in a region partly located over travertine formations, showing an enhanced level of natural radioactivity. Outdoor and indoor radon concentrations were measured seasonally over the whole year, using CR-39 diffusion type radon detectors. Outdoor measurements were performed a...

A new method to estimate the indoor gamma dose rate has been developed. This method is based on outdoor gamma dose rate measurements and a computational model that requires the knowledge of some structural and geometrical characteristics of the dwelling. It can be a very useful tool in situations in which it is impossible entering the dwellings to...

The measurement campaigns have been done in the rural community of Niska Banja, a spa town located in southern Serbia, to evaluate population exposure to natural radioactivity. After a screening survey in 200 houses, annual radon and thoron concentrations were measured in 34 houses, and in 2004 a detailed investigation was carried out at six houses...

Studies seeking direct estimates of the lung cancer risk associated with residential radon exposure lasting several decades have been conducted in many European countries. Individually these studies have not been large enough to assess moderate risks reliably. Therefore data from all 13 European studies of residential radon and lung cancer satisfyi...

Building materials are an important source of indoor gamma dose rate, particularly in multistory buildings. In many cases in that, it is difficult to enter the dwellings to measure the indoor gamma dose rate, such as for epidemiological studies and surveys, it is actually interesting to estimate the indoor gamma dose rate. In this chapter a new met...

This paper analyses and discusses how the Italian legislation implementing Title VII of the Council Directive 96/29/Euratom deals with natural radioactivity of terrestrial origin in work environments, that is, both radon in workplaces and work activities with naturally occurring radioactive materials. Particular attention is given to the chosen val...

An important achievement of nuclear track detectors is that they render it possible to measure a large number of radon concentrations. These are necessary for epidemiological studies aimed to estimate the lung cancer risk due to exposure to radon and its decay products in dwellings. Many case–control studies were conducted in the last 15 years in E...

An irradiation apparatus was designed in our laboratory to study the detection efficiency dependence of SSNTDs (CR-39, LR115, Makrofol) on alpha particles of different energy and incident angle. The system was designed to irradiate up to nine detectors in a short time, allowing to obtain reproducible conditions on many detectors and therefore to re...

We performed a case-control study in Lazio, a region in central Italy characterized by high levels of indoor radon, Mediterranean climate and diet. Cases (384) and controls (404) aged 35-90 years were recruited in the hospital. Detailed information regarding smoking, diet and other risk factors were collected by direct interview. Residential histor...

Resumo: O objectivo desta análise foi determinar o risco de neoplasia do pulmão associado à exposição em casa à radioactividade produzida pelo radão, gás que ocorre naturalmente na natureza.Envolveu 13 estudos europeus realizados em 9 países (Portugal não incluído), contabilizando-se 7148 casos de cancro do pulmão e 14 208 controlos.A con...

A representative National Survey to evaluate the exposure to natural sources of ionizing radiation in dwellings was conducted in all the 21 Italian Regions from 1989 to 1998, and the complete results are reported in this paper. Radon concentration was measured for two consecutive 6-month periods (generally covering the spring–summer and autumn–wint...

To determine the risk of lung cancer associated with exposure at home to the radioactive disintegration products of naturally occurring radon gas. Collaborative analysis of individual data from 13 case-control studies of residential radon and lung cancer. Nine European countries. 7148 cases of lung cancer and 14,208 controls. Relative risks of lung...