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Monthly and quarterly correction factors for determining the mean annual radon concentration in the atmosphere of underground workplaces in Poland

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Abstract

The aimed of the work was estimated the value (level) of mean annual 222Rn activity concentration in an underground space based on monthly (k1m) and quarterly (k3m) correction factors. The calculations of factors were developed with the assumption that measurements will be conducted for at least 1 month or a quarter of a year. Radon monitoring to confirm the calculated values was carried out continuously from 2008 to 2019 and verification was made on real data obtained in 2020. The estimated mean annual 222Rn activity concentration for spaces with natural air exchange depends on factors k1m and for mechanically ventilated spaces—k3m. The k1m for the first group varies from 1.2 to 3.3 between January and March, and between October and December. In the remaining months, k1m assumes the values from 0.6 to 0.8. In spaces where natural air exchange with the atmosphere is not impeded by airlocks, the k1m takes the values of 1.0–1.5 (I–III and X–XII), 0.7–0.8 (V–IX), and 1.0 (IV). For spaces with mechanical ventilation, the k3m is characterized by values in the range of 1.3–1.4 (I and IV quarter), and 0.9 in the others. In spaces with an unknown ventilation method or when the methods are mixed, the averages for both groups of correction factors can be used: k1m in the range of ≥ 1.0–1.6 (I–III and IX–XII) and < 1.0–0.7 (IV–XI), and k3m—in the range of 1.3–1.4 (I and IV quarter) and 0.9 in the others.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the managers of underground tourist facilities in Lower Silesia, particularly Prof. Marek Kaczorowski, Ms. Elżbieta Szumska, Mr. Bogdan Rosicki, and Mr. Artur Sawicki, for their help with fieldwork and for enabling access to their sites to conduct research.

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The authors declare that this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Division of Geotechnics, Hydrotechnics, Underground Construction and Hydrological Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeże S. Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370, Wrocław, Poland

    Lidia Fijałkowska-Lichwa

  2. Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology, Laboratory of Geology and Planetary Sciences, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeże S. Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370, Wrocław, Poland

    Tadeusz A. Przylibski

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Contributions

TAP contributed to conceptualization and put forward the idea of calculating the correction factors. LF-L contributed to data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, and visualization and gathered and compared the appropriate data obtained from the measurements she had conducted. She was responsible for the statistical treatment of these data and interpreted the results of statistical analyses. She also made the illustrations and performed calculations and analyses. LF-L and TAP contributed to supervision, validation, writing—original draft and writing—review and editing. Both authors interpreted the obtained results and wrote up the manuscript. Both authors read and approved of the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lidia Fijałkowska-Lichwa.

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Fijałkowska-Lichwa, L., Przylibski, T.A. Monthly and quarterly correction factors for determining the mean annual radon concentration in the atmosphere of underground workplaces in Poland. Environ Geochem Health 45, 1475–1498 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01280-2

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