The health benefits and cost effectiveness of the radon mitigation programme in NHS properties in Northamptonshire

A comprehensive radon remediation programme in NHS properties in Northamptonshire, where 11 100 staff are employed working on 83 separate sites, has been in progress since 1992, and has resulted in many locations with raised radon levels being identified and remediated. This paper considers the dose saving achieved and costs of the remediation to derive a value for the cost-effectiveness of the programme. A value of pound sterling 184000 per Man-Sievert of annual dose reduction was obtained, which is around half the figure calculated by the NRPB in its recent initiative to reduce patient doses from dental x-rays in the UK, based on cost-benefit analysis. Thus similar comprehensive radon remediation programmes in any workplace in Radon Affected Areas can be justified. The cost of this workplace programme is, however, a factor of about 4 times more expensive than the theoretical estimates for domestic radon mitigation programmes found in the literature, and the reasons for this difference are considered.