When I last looked at it, and this was long ago, '80s I think, radon appeared to only be a serious danger to smokers; the original studies were of uranium miners, who of course smoked a lot back then.
Which, given that "X and smoking is very bad" is true for a host of things, suggests to me the focus on radon might be misplaced.
As for your general starting point, I sure wish more would use the toxicologist's maxim "The dose makes the poison" vs. the clearly bogus linear no-threshold model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_no-threshold_model
Heck, even the banana equivalent dose (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose) would be more fruitful, you might say ^_^. Most of that is from potassium-40 in it, and Edward Teller had a favorite statistic based on sleeping with two other people based on the dosage you'd get from that isotope in them.
And that also addresses to an extent your inhalation/injection concern. We live in a sea of radioactivity, from isotopes inside us to cosmic rays which also flip DRAM bits. Anyone petrified of radioactive threats should never be told about the consequences of normal altitude commercial jet flying, unless they're planning on making a career of it.
And if something only cause lung cancer is smokers, then it really sounds like they didn't control for smoking in the radon studies--which I believe is exactly what happened.
Which, given that "X and smoking is very bad" is true for a host of things, suggests to me the focus on radon might be misplaced.
As for your general starting point, I sure wish more would use the toxicologist's maxim "The dose makes the poison" vs. the clearly bogus linear no-threshold model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_no-threshold_model
Heck, even the banana equivalent dose (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose) would be more fruitful, you might say ^_^. Most of that is from potassium-40 in it, and Edward Teller had a favorite statistic based on sleeping with two other people based on the dosage you'd get from that isotope in them.
And that also addresses to an extent your inhalation/injection concern. We live in a sea of radioactivity, from isotopes inside us to cosmic rays which also flip DRAM bits. Anyone petrified of radioactive threats should never be told about the consequences of normal altitude commercial jet flying, unless they're planning on making a career of it.