Radon progeny dose conversion coefficients for Chinese males and females

The airway dimensions for Caucasian males have been scaled by multiplying by factors 0.95 and 0.88 to give those for Chinese males and females, respectively. Employing the most recent data on physical and biological parameters, the radiation doses to the basal and secretory cells due to α particles from 218Po and 214Po, homogeneously distributed in the mucous layer, have been calculated. The emission of α particles has been simulated by a Monte Carlo method. For both basal and secretory cells, the dose conversion coefficients (DCCs) for physical conditions of sleep, rest, light and heavy exercise, have been obtained for Chinese males and females for unattached progeny, and for attached progeny of diameters 0.02, 0.15, 0.25, 0.30 and 0.50 μm. For basal cells, the coefficients lie in the range 0.69–6.82 mGy/(J s/m3) or 8.7–86 mGy/WLM for unattached progeny and in the range 0.045–1.98 mGy/(J s/m3) or 0.57–25 mGy/WLM for attached progeny. The corresponding ranges for Caucasian males are 1.27–8.81 mGy/(J s/m3) or 16–111 mGy/WLM−1 and 0.05–2.30 mGy/(J s/m3) or 0.64–29 mGy/WLM. For secretory cells, the coefficients lie in the range 0.095–16.82 mGy/(J s/m3) (1.2–212 mGy/WLM) for unattached progeny and in the range 0.095–6.67 mGy/(J s/m3) (1.2–84 mGy/WLM) for attached progeny. The corresponding ranges for Caucasian males are 0.34–21.51 mGy/(J s/m3) (4.3–271 mGy/WLM) and 0.1–7.78 mGy/(J s/m3) (1.3–98 mGy/WLM). The overall DCCs calculated for a typical home environment are 0.59 and 0.52 mSv/(J s/m3) (7.4 and 6.5 mSv/WLM) for Chinese males and females, respectively, which are 80 and 70% of the value, 0.73 mSv/(J s/m3) (9.2 mSv/WLM), for Caucasian males.