title: The practical use of electrets in a public health radon remediation campaign.
abstract: As part of a long-term assessment of domestic radon in Northamptonshire, England, a batch of 50 commercially available electrets was deployed for nearly 1,000 exposures, individual exposure periods ranging from one to eight weeks. Responsivity was comparable with that of recently-calibrated Durridge RAD-7 continuously-monitoring equipment. Voltage history analysis indicated mean voltage decay during manufacturers' QA assessment of 0.059+/-0.026 Vday(-1), increasing to 0.114+/-0.073 Vday(-1) during storage to first use and to 0.204+/-0.49 Vday(-1) during inter-deployment storage. At a representative elevated radon concentration of 500 Bqm(-3), the resulting perturbation is 3% over a 7-day deployment; at the typical mean Northamptonshire level of 80 Bqm(-3) it approaches 22%. Each electret can be used for up to 25 measurements, which makes the technology attractive for organisational use. It is not suited for deployment by individual householders.
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Department, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust, Cliftonville, Northampton NN1 5BD, UK. tony.denman@ngh.nhs.uk
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Denman
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Groves-Kirkby
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: R G M
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Crockett
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Woolridge
authors.forename: G K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Gillmore
mesh_terms: D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis*; D001417:Background Radiation; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004739:England; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics; D006813:Humidity; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011886:Radon / Q000032:analysis*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive; D011886:Radon