Assessment of Background Radiation Levels and Associated Doses in Soils of the Most Popular Tourist Place Muree, Pakistan

Satti, Khizar Hayat; Jabbar, Tania; Dilband, Muhammad; Khan, Khalid Saifullah; Rashid, Abdul; Jabbar, Abdul

doi:10.13189/ujes.2017.050402

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The Murree formation is characterized by the presence of purple to reddish brown, medium grained thin bedded hard sandstone that includes chert. The prominent geological formations in this region comprise limestone, shale, sandstone, brick-red clay, silty claystone, and purple to dark brown sandstone [18]. A comprehensive description of these rock types may be found in Table 2.…”

Section: Description Of Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality Evaluation and Health Implications of Natural Spring Water from a District in Outer Himalayas: A Case Study for Murree, Pakistan

Anjum,

Siddique,

Younis

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Murree is the most visited tourist destination in Pakistan. The rural population of Murree uses natural spring water for drinking, household use, and irrigation. This study assessed the elemental concentration of water from 20 natural springs in Murree using ICP-OES. The mean concentration of these elements varied in the following order: Ca > Na > Mg > Si > K > Se > Sr > Ba > Al > B > Li > Zn > Fe > Ni > Cr. Principal component analysis was used to assess the correlation between the sites. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to find the correlation among the metals and altitude. To assess the metal pollution levels in Murree’s natural spring water, metal index was calculated for Al, Ba, Cr, Ni, Fe, Zn, Sr, Mg, and Ca, respectively. The metal index revealed that the pollution levels in the natural spring water of Murree are low. The health hazards posed by exposure to these metals were quantified for ingestion and dermal contact. The spatial distribution was assessed using inverse distance weighting interpolation. The average daily dose was calculated for Al, B, Ba, Ca, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Na, Sr, Zn, Li, and Ni exposure for both adults and children. The average daily dose results showed that ingestion is the primary exposure pathway, with children having a higher risk. Ca has the highest ADD via ingestion and dermal contact, while Cr has the lowest for both adults and children. The study quantified potential noncarcinogenic health hazards from metal exposure in Murree spring water by calculating the hazard quotient and hazard index for two pathways. Barium had the highest HQing, HQder, and HI values, while Fe had the lowest. The study assessed the quality of water for irrigation in Murree's natural spring water using the sodium absorption ratio, magnesium absorption ratio, percentage sodium, Kelly's ratio, and salinity hazard. The study concluded that the spring water of Murree has low concentrations of heavy metals; their concentration is dependent upon the geology of the study area and is good for drinking and irrigation.

show abstract

Section: Description Of Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality Evaluation and Health Implications of Natural Spring Water from a District in Outer Himalayas: A Case Study for Murree, Pakistan

Anjum,

Siddique,

Younis

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1. Geographically, research area is situated at latitude and longitude range of 33° 45' 0" N and 73° 33' 0" E respectively with elevation of 2300 meters (Satti et al 2017). Geologically, study area lies at the foothills of Western Himalayas.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of frequency ratio, information value, and weights-of-evidence models and their comparison in landslide susceptibility mapping in Murree region, Sub-Himalayas

Islam

Iqbal

Mahmood

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Landslide is a chronic geohazard in hilly regions which affects the socioeconomic trends globally. Current study is conducted to apply three models including Information Value (IV), Frequency Ratio (FR) and Weights of Evidence (WoE) for Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (LSM) of Murree. Sentinel-2, Google Earth, and field surveys data were used to generate an inventory map of 102 landslides and these events were divided into two subsets i.e., 70% and 30% for LSM and model validation respectively. Eleven causative factors including soil erosion, elevation, slope, aspect, curvature, drainage, fault, road, precipitation, Land Use Land Cover (LULC), and lithology maps were prepared using Google Earth Engine (GEE). The final susceptibility maps were produced with the training datasets of landslide events and causative factors using IV, FR and WoE, whereas these maps were validated using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) technique. The Area Under Curve (AUC) illustrated the Success Rate Curve (SRC) of 69%, 78% and 79% for the IV, FR and WoE models, respectively, while Predicted Rate Curve (PRC) were 80%, 95% and 87% for the IV, FR and WoE models, respectively. The results of this study can be used by policymakers to plan some mitigation regarding soil erosion and landslides-prone region.

show abstract

“…The area had high levels of silicates and alumina. There was a weak to mild association between the concentrations of major elements and radionuclides (Satti et al, 2016). Salim et al studied heavy metal concentration in some areas of Murree of varying altitude and discovered that the concentrations of Cd and Mn in soil and plant samples vary with elevation, with most heavy metals (HMs) being found in the mid-elevation zones of the Himalayan slopes (Salim et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution, Radionuclides, and their Health Implications: A Case Study for Murree, Pakistan

Anjum,

Siddique,

Younis

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Soil pollution is directly related to the urbanization of an area. Murree is a renowned tourist attraction in Pakistan. In recent years, Murree has been developing rapidly, raising pollution levels. In this study, elemental analysis of soil from urban areas of Murree was performed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and an elemental analyzer, while the activities of naturally occurring radionuclides (NORMs) were also measured using Gamma Spectrometry. It was found that the average metal concentrations decreased in the following order: Ca > Al > Fe > Mg > Ti > Mn > Ba > Zn > Zr > V > Cr > Pb > Ni > Cu > Co > As > Sn. Various parameters, such as enrichment factor, geo-accumulation index, pollution and integrated pollution index, and ecological risk factor were calculated to assess the soil pollution levels. These parameters revealed low to moderate contamination at most of the sites and high pollution levels at one site. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and correlation matrix revealed various sources for these metals namely burning of coal and wood, petrol and diesel vehicles, urban waste and geogenic. Carbon and nitrogen concentrations showed that the soil in the region is of poor quality and is unsuitable for optimal crop and plant growth. Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health hazards related to Cu, Pb, As, Ni, Cr, Mn, Ba, Zn and Co, exposure via three pathways (inhalation, dermal contact, and ingestion) were calculated for both adults and children; namely Average Daily Dose (ADD), Hazard Quotient (HQ), Hazard Index (HI) and Cancer Risk for Lifetime Exposure (CRLE). The highest HI value observed in adults was 0.023 for Ni and in children 0.207 for Co. In both adults and children, the HI values for each metal were less than 1, indicating no appreciable health risk. However, children have HI values for each metal that were 8–10 times higher, respectively, than adults. Only Cr in children posed a carcinogenic risk with the total cancer risk for lifetime exposure value CRLETotal = 3\(\times\)10-4. Specific activities and health hazards associated with gamma exposure from natural radionuclides were also quantified. The average specific activities of Ra-226, Th-232, K-40 and Cs-137 in Bq/kg were 26.8 ± 14.4, 17.4 ± 4.9, 495.9 ± 82, 8 ± 3.2 respectively. The mean values for Radium Equivalent (Raeq), Outdoor External Dose (Dout) Indoor External Dose (Din) Annual Outdoor Effective Dose (Eout) Annual Indoor Effective Dose (Ein) and Total Lifetime Cancer Risk (LCRtotal) are 38.2 Bq/kg, 43.5 nGy/h, 83 nGy/h, 0.05 mSv/y, 0.4 mSv/y, and 1.53\(\times\)10-3 respectively. The spatial distribution of heavy metals and natural radionuclides was studied using interpolation to quantify their distribution geographically in Murree. This study demonstrates that some urban areas of Muree, near the city center are highly polluted.

show abstract

Assessment of Background Radiation Levels and Associated Doses in Soils of the Most Popular Tourist Place Muree, Pakistan

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

Quality Evaluation and Health Implications of Natural Spring Water from a District in Outer Himalayas: A Case Study for Murree, Pakistan

Quality Evaluation and Health Implications of Natural Spring Water from a District in Outer Himalayas: A Case Study for Murree, Pakistan

Application of frequency ratio, information value, and weights-of-evidence models and their comparison in landslide susceptibility mapping in Murree region, Sub-Himalayas

Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution, Radionuclides, and their Health Implications: A Case Study for Murree, Pakistan

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About