​This research has been carried under the Geological Survey Ireland 2017 Short Call. This call provided funding for researchers in academia or industry on the island of Ireland for projects of less than 12 months duration and less than €25,000. 

Please note that the final report has been redacted to remove staff, financial and sensitive information. Some file sizes have been reduced to allow easier uploading/downloading, higher quality files are available on request. Supplemental information is also available on request in most cases. Please contact research[AT]gsi.ie

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and not of Geological Survey Ireland or the Department of Climate Action, Communications and Environment.

Lead Applicant: Dr Quentin Crowley

Host: Trinity College Dublin

Project Title: An All-Ireland Geogenic Indoor Radon Map

Project Description: Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas, which can accumulate indoors and result in an elevated risk of developing lung cancer. Globally, radon exposure is the second highest cause of lung cancer, resulting in tens of thousands deaths annually. Ireland has some of the highest levels of radon in Europe and eighth highest of 29 OECD countries.
The EU Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM defines strategies to reduce exposure to ionising radiation. The directive must be transposed into national legislation by 2018, where it is expressly mentioned that radon exposure has to be addressed in National Action Plans. Predictive models of indoor radon exist for both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but these have not used a common approach. This proposal will utilise datasets currently held by the GSI, GSNI, the EPA and EA and invigorate north-south research collaboration. This development / demonstration project will almost double the number of georeferenced indoor radon measurements available in the Republic of Ireland and integrate these with the NI dataset, thereby providing over 86,000 measurements. Novel logistic regression methodologies will be utilised, resulting in the first all-Ireland geogenic indoor radon risk map, informing local councils and government agencies on radon prone areas.

Report