Killing of target cells due to radon progeny in the human lung.

The dose conversion coefficient (DCC) is used to assess the risk due to inhaled radon progeny in the human lung. The present work uses the microdosimetric approach and determines the linear energy transfer in the target cell nuclei. Killing of target cells was also taken into account through an effect-specific track length model. To focus on the relevant part of the absorbed dose in the cell nuclei, the absorbed dose, which causes cell-killing is discarded in the final calculations of the DCC. Following this approach, the calculated DCC has become 3.4 mSv WLM(-1) which is very close to the epidemiologically derived value of approximately 4 mSv WLM(-1).