Hopper R D, Steinhäusler F, Ronca-Battista M
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Radiation and Indoor Environments National Laboratory, Las Vegas, NV 89119, USA.
Health Phys. 1999 Sep;77(3):303-8. doi: 10.1097/00004032-199909000-00009.
As an element of the joint IAEA-EPA International Radon Metrology Evaluation Program, a climatic test of long-term integrating radon detectors was conducted at the U.S. EPA Radiation and Indoor Environments National Laboratory. The objective of this study was to test the performance of commonly used commercially available long-term 222Rn detector systems under extreme climatological conditions using filtered polycarbonate CR-39 plastic analyzed by the manufacturer using the track-etch method, unfiltered LR-115 film analyzed by the manufacturer, and Teflon based electrets analyzed in the field by EPA using the manufacturer's equipment. The EPA environmental radon chambers were used to expose detectors to extreme cold and dry (less than 4.0 degrees C air temperature and 25% relative humidity) and hot and humid (greater than 35 degrees C air temperature and 85% relative humidity) climatic conditions. During phase I detectors were exposed to low temperatures and low humidities, and during phase II detectors were exposed to high temperatures and high humidities. Typical indoor equilibrium fractions (near 50%) and radon concentrations of about 150 Bq m(-3) were maintained for each phase, which lasted 90 d. The results indicated that the optimal detector for extreme climatic conditions is dependent on the relative importance of bias and precision. Overall, however, the filtered track-etch type detector produced the most reliable results under the extreme conditions.
