TEMPORAL UNCERTAINTY VERSUS COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZATION OF INDOOR RADON MEASUREMENTSProf. Konstantin Kovler*, Andrey Tsapalov
National Building Research Institute, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa, Israel
cvrkost@technion.ac.ilAbstract
Measurements of indoor radon to conformity assessment of a room with a norm fundamentally differ between Europe and the US. The EU applies long-term tests – usually 1-3 months, while the US applies widely short-term tests – from 2 to 7 days. None of the measurement approaches considers the temporal uncertainty of indoor radon, a factor that usually significantly exceeds instrumental uncertainty (including in long-term tests) and is 2-3 times the coefficient of variation (COV) commonly used to estimate temporal variations. This problem significantly complicates creation of a harmonized international (ISO) standard implementing the rational concept of “measurement uncertainty” that allows controlling the coverage probability or reliability of decision making.
Within the ISO rules, a criterion of conformity assessment of a room with a norm covering short- and long-term tests, as well as an algorithm for determining the temporal uncertainty depending on the test duration and ventilation mode, is proposed.
