Concentration of radon in ground and drinking water samples are collected from 36 locations around Kabini River basin, Karnataka State, India was measured using Emanometry Technique and it varied from 1.1 to 38.9 Bq.L-1 with geometrical mean of 8.5 Bq.L-1. The higher radon values are found at western side of the river, this is due to the local geology of the area and the upstream water consists of higher activity concentration of radon than that of downstream of the river. The total annual effective dose received by inhalation and ingestion of radon varied from 7.58 to 106.26 μSv.y-1 with geometrical mean of 25.37 μSv.y-1. The annual effective doses were within the safe limit of 0.1 μSv.y-1 as prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO). Out of the total population in the study area, nearly 70% use underground water, 20% use river water and others use surface water (river and lakes) for drinking.
Indoor radon, thoron and their progeny levels were measured in various types of dwellings during 2016-17 in Hemavathi river basin, Karnataka by using solid state nuclear track detector based pin-hole dosemeters; dwellings of various types were chosen for the measurement. The dosemeters containing the detector (LR-115, Type II Film) was used for this purpose. The concentration of indoor radon in the study area varied from 30.72 to 196.08 Bq m-3 with a median of 83.13 Bq m-3 and thoron concentration varied from 15.56 to 227.78 Bq m-3. Higher concentrations of radon and its progeny were observed in granite flooring and cement roofing dwellings compared to other types of dwellings. The reason for higher concentration of indoor radon and its progeny is due to activity of radium present in granite and provision of less ventilation in dwellings. The equilibrium equivalent radon, thoron concentrations and annual effective dose are discussed.
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