CR3 News Magazine 2018 VOL 3: MAY Radon and Early Detection | Page 15

High risk
The total population in the low risk areas is 1.08 million (24 per cent) and in the medium risk areas 2.13
million (46 per cent). Some 30 per cent of the population, or 1.37 million people, live in a high-risk area for
radon.
Prof Quentin Crowley, assistant professor in isotopes and the environment at the school of natural sciences
at Trinity College Dublin said the new high spatial resolution radon risk map was a “big improvement” on
the previous map.
The researchers found that including geological data, such as bedrock and glacial geology, subsoil
permeability and subsurface permeability in relation to groundwater with existing indoor radon
concentration measurements provided a more detailed picture of the radon risk facing the public.
Prof Crowley said, however, it was not possible to provide a level of detail on risk areas by town,
or city, for example. The only way of knowing whether a particular home or building was at risk
was to have it tested.
“We have some of the highest recorded indoor levels of radon in Europe and probably the eighth
highest globally,” Prof Crowley said.
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