title: Comparison of urinary excretion of radon from the human body before and after radon bath therapy.
abstract: Theoretically, the human body absorbs radon through the lungs and the skin and excretes it through the lungs and the excretory organs during radon bath therapy. To check this theory, the radon concentrations in urine samples were compared before and after radon bath therapy. During the therapy, the geometric mean (GM) and the geometric standard deviation of the radon concentration in air and in the bath water were 979 Bq m(-3), 1.58 and 73.6 Bq dm(-3), 1.1, respectively. Since radon was detected in each urine sample (GM around 3.0 Bq dm(-3)), urinary excretion of radon was confirmed. The results of this study can neither reject nor confirm the hypothesis of radon absorption through the skin. A 15 times higher increment of inhaled radon level did not cause significant changes in radon of urine samples.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Radiation Protection, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan. norbert@fml.nirs.go.jp
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kávási
authors.forename: Tibor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.forename: János
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Somlai
authors.forename: Viktor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jobbágy
authors.forename: Katalin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Eszter
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Deák
authors.forename: István
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Berhés
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tokonami
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001452:Balneology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011886:Radon / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000652:urine*; D012867:Skin / Q000528:radiation effects*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011886:Radon