Environmental radon: Health aspects and present status in northern India

Abstract

Following the discovery of high levels of indoor radon in various parts of the world, every environmental protection agency is determined to address the potential radon problem. In India, many research groups are determined to characterize the problem as it might exist in Indian dwellings, where poor ventilation and mud structures are common. Not only radon but also its progeny are radioactive. Being a gas radon can disperse and its progeny can attach to aerosols/dust particles to be transmitted in indoor environments. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in North America and the leading cause of lung cancer for individuals who have never smoked. Due to potential public health implications of exposure to high levels of radon, the characterization of radon problem in India must also be complemented with the development of a program to educate the public regarding radon. This paper is an attempt to provide awareness about the environmental radon, its origin, health concerns, present status of radon concentrations in dwellings of Northern India and some remedial actions for protection from radiation. The estimated indoor radon levels are looked into as recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, 2009.

Measurement of indoor radon, thoron and their progeny levels in dwellings of Union Territory Chandigarh, India: correlation with radon exhalation rates

“…3,6 Our earlier paper also showed that a little data of indoor radon study was available for this region of northern India in the literature. 7 Similarly natural radioactivity and radon exhalation rates from the soil samples of districts of Punjab and Haryana have been reported by many workers [8][9][10][11] but no such study on the soil and sand samples of the Union Territory (UT) Chandigarh is available in literature. Keeping this in mind the environmental monitoring of radon, thoron and their progeny in some dwellings of UT Chandigarh has been carried out along with the study of radon exhalation rates from the soil and sand samples of the study area.…”

Evaluation of Uranium Concentration in Some Water Samples of Anandpur Sahib

“…Primordial radionuclides like uranium, potassium and thorium and their decay products are responsible for radiological contamination (1). Decay product of radium, which comes from uranium, is radon which contributes almost half of the background radiation (2). Uranium is present everywhere in earth and mostly found in rocks and soil (3).…”

Estimation of Radon Thoron Levels in Jind Area of Haryana

“…Due to these radioactive gasses' humans are continually bombarded by nuclear radiation, along with radiations from other naturally occurring radionuclides present in various concentration in our environment. The most frequent radioactive elements found in nature are various isotopes of uranium, radium, thorium, and potassium (1). These gases become dangerous if gets piled up in a place crossing certain levels (2).…”