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Pediatr Pulmonol . Author manuscript ; available in PMC 2022 December 01 .
Published in final edited form as : Pediatr Pulmonol . 2022 December ; 57 ( 12 ): 3165 – 3168 . doi : 10.1002 / ppul . 26143 .
Environmental radon and childhood asthma
Lana Mukharesh , MD 1 , 2 , Kimberly F . Greco , MPH 3 , Tina Banzon , MD 2 , 4 , Petros Koutrakis , PhD 5 , Longxiang Li , ScD 5 , Marissa Hauptman , MD , MPH 2 , 6 , Wanda Phipatanakul , MD , MS 2 , 4 , Jonathan M . Gaffin , MD , MMSc 1 , 2 1 Division of Pulmonary Medicine , Boston Children ’ s Hospital , Boston , Massachusetts , USA
2 Harvard Medical School , Boston , Massachusetts , USA
3 Institutional Centers for Clinical and Translational Research ( ICCTR ), Boston Children ’ s Hospital , Boston , Massachusetts , USA 4 Division of Allergy and Immunology , Boston Children ’ s Hospital , Boston , Massachusetts , USA
5 Department of Environmental Health , Harvard T . H . Chan School of Public Health , Boston , Massachusetts , USA 6 Department of General Pediatrics , Boston Children ’ s Hospital , Boston , Massachusetts , USA
1 | INTRODUCTION
Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood in the United States , affecting more than 4 million ( 6 %) children under the age of 18 years . 1 Multiple factors contribute to asthma symptoms , diagnosis and morbidity including indoor air pollutants . 2 More than 90 % of time is spent indoors , 3 making indoor exposure to respiratory irritants particularly important .
Radon ( 222 Rn ) is a naturally occurring noble gas , formed from the radioactive decay of uranium in soil , rocks , and groundwater . It can permeate through cracks and accumulate in poorly ventilated or closed areas , thereby affecting indoor air-quality . Inhaled radon decay products ( 214 Po , 218 Po ) emit �-rays , causing damage to the respiratory epithelium , which is a well-established cause of lung cancer 4 and more recently has been associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) morbidity . 5
Correspondence : Jonathan M . Gaffin , MD , MMSc , Division of Pulmonary Medicine , Boston Children ’ s Hospital , 300 Longwood Ave , Farley 4 , Boston , MA 02215 , USA . Jonathan . Gaffin @ childrens . harvard . edu . AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS Lana Mukharesh : Writing – original draft ; methodology ; writing – review & editing ; conceptualization ; formal analysis ; investigation ; data curation . Kimberly F Greco : Formal analysis ; data curation ; methodology ; conceptualization ; investigation ; writing – review & editing . Tina Banzon : Writing – review & editing ; investigation . Petros Koutrakis : Funding acquisition ; data curation ; methodology ; investigation ; conceptualization ; writing – review & editing ; formal analysis . Longxiang Li : Formal analysis ; data curation . Marissa Hauptman : writing – review & editing ; investigation ; methodology . Wanda Phipatanakul : Funding acquisition ; writing – review & editing ; investigation ; methodology ; data curation ; supervision ; conceptualization . Jonathan M Gaffin : Conceptualization ; writing – review & editing ; methodology ; supervision ; funding acquisition ; investigation ; data curation ; formal analysis .
CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare no conflict of interest .