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ABSTRACT
Objectives. The purpose of this paper is to provide smokers with information on the relative benefits of mitigating radon and quitting smoking in reducing radon-related lung cancer risk.
Methods. The standard radon risk model, linked with models characterizing residential radon exposure and patterns of moving to new homes, was used to estimate the risk reduction produced by remediating high-radon homes, quitting smoking, or both.
Results. Quitting smoking reduces lung cancer risk from radon more than does reduction of radon exposure itself.
Conclusions. Smokers should understand that, in addition to producing other health benefits, quitting smoking dominates strategies to deal with the problem posed by radon. (Am J Public Health. 1998; 88:811-812)
Introduction
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers radon a major cause of lung cancer that is responsible for 7000 to 30 000 deaths in the United States annually.' The agency has urged Americans to test their homes and remediate those in which radon readings exceed 4 pCi/L.2
EPA distinguishes the risks of radon exposure for smokers and never smokers in its A Citizen's Guide to Radon.3 The risks are dramatically higher for smokers, reflecting an interaction effect between radon and cigarette smoking.3 5 Although the guide recommends quitting smoking, along with remediating homes with high radon readings, no publication has compared the risk reduction attainable by radon mitigation, smoking cessation, or the two combined. Methods
In our analysis, we used the standard radon lung cancer risk model used by EPA, BEIR IV,4 linked with 2 other models, one describing the distribution of radon in homes in the United States6,7 and one characterizing Americans' patterns of moving to new homes8 (averaging 10 or 11 moves throughout their lives9). Introducing realistic pattems of residential mobility greatly reduces estimates of the individual risk confronted by people currently residing in high-radon homes, simply because they will spend most of their lives in lower-radon homes.5' The models and the analytical process have been described elsewhere5,8(a technical appendix is available from the authors).
In using the BEIR IV model, we assumed a multiplicative relationship between smoking and radon exposure to estimate the effects on risk reduction of radon mitigation alone, smoking cessation alone, or both together. We assumed that mitigation means reducing all elevated radon exposures to...