The activity of radon daughters in high-rise buildings.
Abstract Forty measurements are reported in similar rooms in two high-rise buildings. The geometrical means for the concentration of radon daughters including and excluding the basement results, respectively, were 0.90 and 1.00 mWL, which is less than the quoted mean 2.0 mWL for 65 measurements in typical houses in the same city. The frequency distribution of these measurements shows a log-normal distribution. The concentrations did not depend on the distance from ground level but may depend on the ventilation rate of the room examined. The correlation between the concentration of radon daughters in WL in rooms above the first floor in the two high-rise buildings with the inverse of their ventilation rate were 0.73 and 0.67, respectively.
Cost effectiveness of reducing radon exposure in Spanish dwellings
Published information on the distribution of radon levels in Spanish single family dwellings is used to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of three different intervention scenarios: remediation of existing dwellings, radon proofing of all future dwellings and the targetting of areas with higher than average indoor radon concentrations. Analysis is carried out on the basis of a Reference Level of for the existing housing stock and for new dwellings. Certain assumptions are made about the effectiveness and durability of the measures applied and annualised costs are used to calculate the costs per lung cancer death averted. The results reveal that targetting future housing is a more cost-effective option than remediation of existing dwellings with radon concentrations above the Reference Level - the costs per lung cancer death averted are typically $145 000. In high-risk areas, these costs can be considerably less, depending on the percentage of dwellings expected to exceed the Reference Level and the average savings in exposure as a result of the intervention. The costs of intervention to reduce lung cancer deaths following exposure to radon compare favourably with those of other health programmes in other countries.
Flow in a branching open channel: a review
Branching channel flow refers to any side water withdrawals from rivers or main channels. Branching channels have wide application in many practical projects, such as irrigation and drainage network systems, water and waste water treatment plants, and many water resources projects. In the last decades, extensive theoretical and experimental investigations of the branching open channels have been carried out to understand the characteristics of this branching flow, varying from case studies to theoretical and experimental investigations. The objectives of this paper are to review and summarise the relevant literatures regarding branching channel flow. These literatures were reviewed based on flow characteristics, physical characteristics, and modeling of the branching flow. Investigations of the flow into branching channel show that the branching discharge depends on many interlinked parameters. It increases with the decreasing of the main channel flow velocity and Froude number at the upstream of the branch channel junction. Also it increases with the increasing of the branch channel bed slope. In subcritical flow, water depth in the branch channel is always lower than the main channel water depth. The flow diversion to the branch channel leads to an increase of water depth at the downstream of the main channel. From the review, it is important to highlight that most of the study concentrated on flow characteristics in a right angle branch channel with a rigid boundary. Investigations on different branching angles with movable bed have still to be explored.