Geology, lineaments, and sensitivity of groundwater to radon gas contamination

Arabi, A. S.; Funtua, I. I.; Dewu, B. B. M.; Kwaya, M. Y.; Kurowska, E.; Kulu, S. Hauwau; Abdulhamid, Musa Suleiman; Mahed, Gaathier

doi:10.1007/s40899-017-0150-3

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…Several studies on radon activity concentration in groundwater and indoor radon have been conducted in different parts of Nigeria (Oni et al, 2014;Olise et al, 2016;Ajiboye et al, 2018;Oni et al, 2019;Hauwau Kulu et al, 2020;Arabi et al, 2016;2017) but not a single study from Abuja and environs despite being the federal capital of Nigeria, with a rapidly increasing population, massive construction and quarrying activities, in ux of people into the capital territory on daily basis and frequent tremor that characterize this part of the country in recent times whose resultant effects might include the tainting of groundwater by radon gas, increased radon activity concentration in indoor and outdoor air from subsurface fractures resulting from earth movements. Apart from inhaling radon during excavations/construction, after construction, radon from subsurface can enter homes through construction joints, cracks in the solid oors, cavities inside walls, gaps around service pipes and suspended oors, cracks in the walls and through water supply (Fig.…”

Section: Radon Migration Models Have Been Elaborated Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsurface radon gradient in parts of tremor-prone, north-central Nigeria

Suleiman

Tukur

Funtua

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Radon is a natural gas that originates from geogenic and cosmic material as a part of the natural decay process of uranium and thorium. Radon is reported to have been the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. The US-EPA estimates that about 21,000 people die each year from radon-related (inhaled/ingested) lung cancer. Radon can escape from basement and soils where they are formed and build up indoors where they are eventually inhaled. In this study, radon activity concentration was measured from subsurface at a depth of 0.33m, 0.66m and 0.99m below ground level from 130 locations that covered the entire Federal Capital territory, Abuja-Nigeria and reported. The results obtained showed that the minimum, maximum and mean radon activity concentration (Bq/m3) from soil at 0.33, 0.66 and 0.99m below ground level are 15.20, 48,500.00 and 4,257.47 at 0.33m, 15.20, 59,600.00 and 5,061.19 at 0.66m and 10.02, 81,200.00 and 9,993.15 at 0.99m, respectively. Minimum, maximum and mean radon diffusion length (m) recorded at 0.003m are 0.05, 159.63 and 14.01m. At 0.66 and 0.99m, the values calculated are 0.005,19.62 and 1.67, and 0.003, 26.73 and 0.32, respectively. These results indicate that radon concentration increases with depth and characterized by “high” radon concentration in areas covered by biotite granite, undifferentiated schist, undifferentiated gneiss and porphyroblastic gneiss, “medium” in areas covered by coarse porphyritic biotite and medium to coarse grained biotite and “low” in areas covered by migmatite and marble. Most of the values obtained suggest health burden especially in the study areas where massive excavations for construction of housing units is going on and the likelihood of radon entering homes through opening and cracks created as building/structure settles with time.

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Section: Radon Migration Models Have Been Elaborated Inmentioning

confidence: 99%