ArticleEnvironment international2019
County-level radon exposure and all-cause mortality risk among Medicare beneficiaries.
Article in Environment international, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Radon exposure and risk of cerebrovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis in occupational and general population studies.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Pooled it
- The association between long-term exposure to PMChemosphere · 2025Article
- High-resolution national radon maps based on massive indoor measurements in the United States.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Radon Exposure and Gestational Diabetes.JAMA network open · 2025Observational
- Indoor radon exposure: A systematic review of radon-induced health risks and evidence quality using GRADE approach.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Development of a High-Resolution Indoor Radon Map Using a New Machine Learning-Based Probabilistic Model and German Radon Survey Data.Environmental health perspectives · 2024Article
- On the informative value of community-based indoor radon values in relation to lung cancer.Cancer medicine · 2024Article
- Long-term air pollution exposure and diabetes risk in American older adults: A national secondary data-based cohort study.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2023Article
- Synergistic Effects of Particle Radioactivity (Gross β Activity) and Particulate Matter ≤2.5 μm Aerodynamic Diameter on Cardiovascular Disease Mortality.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Article
- Article
- The Role of Ambient Particle Radioactivity in Inflammation and Endothelial Function in an Elderly Cohort.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2020Article
- Radon Biomonitoring and microRNA in Lung Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRadon is an inert gas formed from the decay of naturally-occurring materials in the earth's crust. It infiltrates into homes from soil, water, and construction materials. Its decay products are radionuclides, which attach to ambient particles. Residential radon is one of the leading risk factors for lung cancer. The scarce evidence for associations with other mortality causes originates mostly from occupational studies.
methodsIn a cohort study with 14 years of follow-up (2000-2013), we evaluated the association between chronic radon exposure and all-cause mortality, and explored whether there are subpopulations who are more vulnerable to radon effects. We included 87,296,195 person-years of follow-up from all Medicare beneficiaries in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. states. We examined the association between the logarithm of county-averaged radon (ln(Rn)) and mortality and assessed effect modification by chronic conditions.
resultsAn interquartile range increase in the ln(Rn) was associated with a 2·62% increase (95% CI 2·52%; 2·73%) in mortality, independent of PM
conclusionWe found an increased risk for all-cause mortality associated with increased radon exposure. The risk was enhanced among susceptible individuals with chronic conditions. We believe this is the first cohort study to identify populations at higher risk for non-malignant health consequences of radon exposure. Due to the limitations in exposure assessment and availability of individual confounders, these findings should be interpreted with caution.
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