[Indoor radon exposure and lung cancer risk: a review of case-control studies].
BACKGROUND
Radon is a radioactive gas that tends to accumulate in indoor environment. A causal relationship between lung cancer and radon exposure has been demonstrated in epidemiologic studies of miners. The objective of this paper is to present the results of case-control studies of lung cancer risk associated with indoor radon exposure.


METHODS
Case-control studies published since 1990 are included in this review. This type of protocol is particularly well suited for studying the relationship between indoor radon exposure and lung cancer risk, taking into account possible confounding factors such as tobacco smoking. The characteristics and results of these studies are summarized. The limitations associated with each of these studies are also discussed.


RESULTS
The results of available studies are relatively concordant and suggest a positive association between lung cancer risk and indoor radon exposure with an estimated excess relative risk of about 6 to 9% per 100Bq/m3 increase in the observed time-weighted average radon concentration. The order of magnitude of this estimation agrees with extrapolations from miners but some studies may suffer from inadequate statistical power.


CONCLUSIONS
At present, efforts are underway to pool together the data from the existing studies of indoor radon. This pooling analysis with thousands of cases and controls will provide a more precise estimate of the lung cancer risk from indoor radon exposure and explore the effect of modifying factors, such as smoking.
Baysson
H
H
Service de Radiobiologie et d'Epidémiologie, Direction de la Radioprotection de l'Homme, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), BP n degrees 17, 92262 Fontenay-aux-Roses Cedex. helene.baysson@irsn.fr.
Tirmarche
M
M
D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000398:Air Pollution, Radioactive / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced*; D011886:Radon / Q000633:toxicity*; D012307:Risk Factors
D011886:Radon