Does the Auvinen Finnish Study Prove that Residential Radon Does Not Cause Lung Cancer?
No, the Finnish study by itself is too small with only 1055 subjects to provide any definitive proof. Scientists from the U.S. Public Health Service Agencies recently reviewed the radon risk assessment and the proliferation of small residential epidemiological studies like the Finnish study. They concluded that residential epidemiology studies would need a minimum of 10,000 to 30,000 lung cancer cases plus twice a many controls to adequately address this issue. Clarification: The residential epidemiology study recently reported out of Finland, examined homes with low radon levels; the median indoor radon level was 1.8 picoCuries per liter (pCi/L) of air. Dr. Jonathan Samet, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences BEIR VI Committee, responded to the Finnish study stating, “…by itself, the study is too small in size and consequently without sufficient statistical power to characterize precisely the risk of lung cancer associated with indoor radon.
