Abstract
Of all the environmental health issues that are being publicized at the turn of the millennium, the one most perplexing to the general public is ionizing radiation. While dirty water, smog laden air, and odoriferous garbage frequently elicit the “outrage factor,” at least they can be seen and/or smelled. Thus, the public can react to something they know is there and is aesthetically displeasing. Radiation has a mystique all of its own. Invisible and insidious, it conjures up memories of the cold war days when the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over the world. Nuclear accidents such as the Three Mile Island near meltdown in Pennsylvania in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986 have served to reinforce the reality of those fears.
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References
Several references which provide a good overview of the problem of residential radon are as follows
Archer, V. E. 1991. A review of radon in homes: health effects, measurement, control, and public policy. Appl. Occup. Env. Hygiene. 6(8): 665–671.
Mossman, J. L. and Sollito, M. A. 1991. Regulatory control of indoor radon. Health Physics. 60(2): 169–176.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Vesley, D. (1999). Ionizing and Nonionizing Radiation. In: Human Health and the Environment. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5434-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5434-6_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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