Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Macedonia in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency within the Regional Project for Technical Cooperation will hold a two-day national workshop on prevention and remediation of radon from the facilities to live and work/living and working, on 17th and 18th February.
Transferring world experiences of experts from the IAEA for building safe from radon, facilities and experiences for measures and actions for remediation of radon constructed buildings, discussion, exchange of opinions and suggestions, constitute the main objective of this workshop.
Because of the introduction of expanded, multi-sectoral approach in controlling exposure to radon, the Institute of Public Health as a coordinator of the program and the working group for monitoring radon, initiated several activities involving the relevant institutions and sectors that need to give their contribution to the control and reduction of radon exposure.
Radon, a gas originating from nature is a major contributor to the dose of population exposure to radiation from nature, through its accumulation in different scale in homes, working places and facilities.
International agency for research on cancer diseases classifies radon in the first group of human cancers while according to the World Health Organization, radon is the second risk factor for developing lung cancer, after smoking.
Therefore, preventing the accumulation of radon through the application protocols, technologies and techniques still in the planning stage of buildings and ongoing construction is of particular importance during building facilities.
Participants of this workshop come from the construction sector, ministries, municipalities, production of construction materials, offices and institutes that will continue to bring the knowledge and thus contribute improving the standards of safety from radon construction whose ultimate goal is to reduce risks of the exposure of the population and to reduce the risk of lungs cancer in the future.
Institute of Public Health through the working group for monitoring the situation with radon plans preparing a broader and long-term draft national strategy to reduce the risks of radon, which will contain recommendations from the World Health Organization for a wider approach of reducing this risk factor.
