Learning radon: professional qualification and social awareness as a strategy for reducing radon exposure

Introduction

Indoor radon tends to accumulate, which may lead to concentrations of concern for health. Over the last decades, regulations for limiting the exposure of the public and workers to radon have been issued, namely by the EU Directive 2013/59/EURATOM.

Project Overview

The project LeaRn4LIFE meets the needs of Member States in implementing measures to reduce radon concentration in buildings. This mirrors the policies provided by EU Directive 2013/59/EURATOM, regarding:

• Provision of appropriate radiation protection education, training, and information to all individuals whose tasks require specific competences in radiation protection (Chapter IV, Article 14).
• Guidance on methods and tools for measurements and remediation activities as part of the strategy for reducing radon exposure in dwellings (ANNEX XVIII items to be considered for radon national action plan).

Training Programme

For that, the LeaRn4LIFE project aims to implement a training programme to certify the technical qualification of radon remediation professionals.

1. Those training programmes will be developed to be ministered in 2 levels and/or in small modules.
2. These modules will be key to fulfilling the needs of the wide range of the target audience.

Public Awareness

Additionally, LeaRn4LIFE has the objective of promoting citizens' awareness of the radon problem for their protection and predisposition to act on and be part of the solution.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this project intends not only to contribute to the qualification of professionals but also to provide society with solutions to reduce radon in dwellings and workplaces as a whole in the most cost-effective way.

These concerns are common among European countries as they all are taking measures to implement the EU Directive 2013/59/EURATOM with the objective of reducing the exposure of the population to radon. Other countries can also benefit from the implementation of this project, as it will be conceived to be replicable to different realities according to each country's specificities, always maintaining the same goal.