title: The uncertainty in the radon hazard classification of areas as a function of the number of measurements.
abstract: The administration in many countries demands a classification of areas concerning their radon risk taking into account the requirements of the EU Basic Safety Standards. The wide variation of indoor radon concentrations in an area which is caused by different house construction, different living style and different geological situations introduces large uncertainties for any classification scheme. Therefore, it is of importance to estimate the size of the experimental coefficient of variation (relative standard deviation) of the parameter which is used to classify an area. Besides the time period of measurement it is the number of measurements which strongly influences this uncertainty and it is important to find a compromise between the economic possibilities and the needed confidence level. Some countries do not use pure measurement results for the classification of areas but use derived quantities, usually called radon potential, which should reduce the influence of house construction, living style etc. and should rather represent the geological situation of an area. Here, radon indoor measurements in nearly all homes in three municipalities and its conversion into a radon potential were used to determine the uncertainty of the mean radon potential of an area as a function of the number of investigated homes. It could be shown that the coefficient of variation scales like 1/√n with n the number of measured dwellings. The question how to deal with uncertainties when using a classification scheme for the radon risk is discussed and a general procedure is proposed.
authors.affiliation: University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Nuclear Physics, Währinger Strasse 17, A 1090 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: harry.friedmann@univie.ac.at.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Friedmann
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, LLC-Laboratory Arsenal, Faradaygasse 3, Arsenal 214, A 1030 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: a.baumgartner@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baumgartner
authors.affiliation: AGES - Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Radon and Radioecology, Wieningerstrasse 8, A 4020 Linz, Austria. Electronic address: valeria.gruber@ages.at.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gruber
authors.affiliation: Federal Government of Upper Austria, Environment, Kärntnerstrasse 10-12, A 4020 Linz, Austria. Electronic address: Heribert.Kaineder@ooe.gv.at.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kaineder
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, LLC-Laboratory Arsenal, Faradaygasse 3, Arsenal 214, A 1030 Vienna, Austria; BEV - Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying, Arltgasse 35, A 1160 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: franz-josef.maringer@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Maringer
authors.affiliation: AGES - Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Radon and Radioecology, Wieningerstrasse 8, A 4020 Linz, Austria. Electronic address: wolfgang.ringer@ages.at.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ringer
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, LLC-Laboratory Arsenal, Faradaygasse 3, Arsenal 214, A 1030 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: claudia.seidel@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Seidel
mesh_terms: D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis / Q000592:standards*; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005844:Geology; D006798:Housing; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011886:Radon / Q000032:analysis / Q000592:standards*; D012449:Safety / Q000592:standards*; D035501:Uncertainty
chemical_list: D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive; D011886:Radon
keywords: Indoor radon; Radon; Radon prone area; Radon survey; Uncertainty