Lower radiation weighting factor for radon indicated in mechanistic modelling of human lung cancer.

A two-mutation carcinogenesis (TMC) model was fitted to the age-dependent lung cancer incidence in a cohort of Dutch Hodgkin patients treated with radiotherapy. Employing the results of previous TMC analyses of lung cancer due to smoking (by British doctors) and due to exposure to radon (for Colorado miners) a model fit was obtained with an estimate for the low LET radiation effect at the cellular level. This allows risk calculations for lung cancer from low LET radiation. The excess absolute risks are in tune with the values reported in the literature, the excess relative risks differ among the exposed groups. Comparing the cellular radiation coefficients for radon and for low LET radiation leads to an estimated radiation weighting factor for radon of 3 (0.1-6).