People are exposed to ionizing radiation from the radionuclides that are present in different types of natural sources, of which phosphate fertilizer is one of the most important sources. Radionuclides in phosphate fertilizer belonging to 232Th and 238U series as well as radioisotope of potassium (40K) are the major contributors of outdoor terrestrial natural radiation. The study of alpha activity in fertilizers, which is the first ever in West Bengal, has been performed in order to determine the effect of the use of phosphate fertilizers on human health. The data have been compared with the alpha activity of different types of chemical fertilizers. The measurement of alpha activity in surface soil samples collected from the cultivated land was also performed. The sampling sites were randomly selected in the cultivated land in the Midnapore district, which is the largest district in West Bengal. The phosphate fertilizer is widely used for large agricultural production, mainly potatoes. The alpha activities have been measured using solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD), a very sensitive detector for alpha particles. The results show that alpha activity of those fertilizer and soil samples varies from 141 Bq/kg to 2,589 Bq/kg and from 109 Bq/kg to 660 Bq/kg, respectively. These results were used to estimate environmental radiation exposure on human health contributed by the direct application of fertilizers.

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The presence of alpha emitting radionuclides in the environment assumes importance since they are found to be carcinogenic. This paper reports the results of an exhaustive and systematic measurement of alpha radioactivity using solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) in drinking water in different parts of India covering the entire Ganges BasinWest Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where arsenic contamination is severe. The alpha activity in the samples was found in the range of 8 to 800 Bq/l in West Bengal, 90 to 1,000 Bq/l in Uttar Pradesh and 60 to 1,000 Bq/l in Bihar -much higher alpha activity value than MCL value given by US EPA. The concentration of alpha activity has a positive correlation with that of arsenic.