Why are residential EPI studies of radon so complicated?
There are many factors that must be considered when designing a residential radon epidemiology study. It is very expensive and often impossible to design a study that takes all the pertinent factors into consideration. These factors include: Mobility: people move a lot over their lifetime; it is virtually impossible to go back and test every home where an individual has lived; Housing Stock Changes: over time, older homes are often destroyed or remodeled, thus radon measurements will be non-existent or highly varied; a home’s radon level may change, higher or lower, over time if new ventilation systems are installed, the occupancy patterns are substantially different, or the home’s foundation shifts or cracks appear. Inaccurate Histories: often a majority of the lung cancer cases (individuals) being studied are deceased or too sick to be interviewed by researchers. This requires reliance on second-hand information which may not be as accurate. These inaccuracies primarily affect: Resid
