Association between levels of radon and bioaerosols (bacteria and fungi) by living conditions

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to measure the levels of airborne radon Rn and bioaerosols – culturable airborne bacteria (CAB) and culturable airborne fungi (CAF)—in South Korea’s residential environments, considering living conditions such as the number of ventilations, number of windows, floors, temperature, and relative humidity. . The range of Rn levels was 0.43–7.439 pCi/L with a median of 0.70 pCi/L. The CAB levels were 239–488 colony-forming unit (CFU)/m³ with a median of 309 CFU/m³, and CAF levels were 174–366 CFU/m³ with a median of 233 CFU/m³. Thus, this study found that semi-basement residential indoor environments negatively affected Rn and bioaerosol levels, and living in such residences resulted in high health condition scores on the bad side. Given the correlation between airborne Rn and bioaerosol levels, further large-scale studies are needed to identify more reliable and representative of research.

KEYWORDS:

• Radon
• bioaerosol
• living conditions
• semi-basement
• self-health condition

Disclosure statement

Sungho Hwang was involved in conceptualization, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation, and review process; Jong-Uk Won and Hyo Soung were involved in methods validation and manuscript verification; Sangwon Lee was involved in experimental works, data analysis and interpretation; and Wha Me Park was involved in methods elaboration and validation, manuscript verification and corrections, and review process. All other authors declare that they have not been involved in any regulatory activities related to the contents of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korean (NRF) funded (2020R1F1A1070408) (2021R1A2C2012884).