Measurement of gross alpha and beta activity concentration in groundwater of Jordan: groundwater quality, annual effective dose and lifetime risk assessment

Abstract

The current study was conducted to measure the activity concentration of the gross alpha and beta in 87 groundwater samples collected from the productive aquifers that constitute a major source of groundwater to evaluate the annual effective dose and the corresponding health impact on the population and to investigate the quality of groundwater in Jordan. The mean activity concentration of gross alpha and beta in groundwater ranges from 0.26 ± 0.03 to 3.58 ± 0.55 Bq L−1 and from 0.51 ± 0.07 to 3.43 ± 0.46 Bq L−1, respectively. A very strong relationship was found between gross alpha and beta activity concentrations. The annual effective dose for alpha and beta was found in the range of 0.32–2.40 mSv with a mean value of 0.89 mSv, which is nine times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended limit and one and half times higher than the national regulation limit. The mean lifetime risk was found to be 45.47 × 10−4 higher than the Jordanian estimated upper-bound lifetime risk of 25 × 10−4. The data obtained in the study would be the baseline for further epidemiological studies on health effects related to the exposure to natural radioactivity in Jordan.

Risk assessment of drinkable water sources using gross alpha and beta radioactivity levels and heavy metals

“…Also, this validates the prediction of gross alpha activity concentration in the samples. Similar reports are made by Agbalagba et al (2013) and Alomari et al (2019). Figure 11.…”

“…High positive R 2 between the parameters indicates that pH is responsible for the activity concentrations of gross alpha and beta in the samples. This report showed similar trends of significant relationship between the pH and gross alpha and gross beta activity at pH < 8.3 (Alomari et al, 2019). This shows that pH of the samples are responsible for the activity concentration of the gross alpha and beta.…”

“…The tap water results for concentration of gross alpha and beta in this study is higher than similar studies reported in literature (Damla et al, 2006;Darko et al, 2014;Saleh et al, 2015Korkmaz et al, 2016. For the ground water: borehole and well water, the activity concentration of gross alpha and beta are higher and lower than reports of Kobya et al (2015) and Alomari et al (2019), repectively as shown in Table 3. The higher or lower activity concentrations of gross alpha and beta in this study compare to other studies is due to the geological properties of the underground source of water and the activities carried out around the water source.…”

Gross alpha/beta activity concentrations in spa and mineral waters in North Vietnam

“…In particular, multiple previous studies observed a strong relationship between the gross alpha and beta activity concentrations [24,27,28]. The gross alpha and beta activity concentrations also reportedly show an insignificant relationship with pH values and EC values of groundwater [26]. The correlation observed between gross alpha and gross beta in China was weak (R = .43) [25].…”

“…In Jordan, the geological structure is heterogeneous, the level of gross alpha and beta is different in different areas, especially in Aqaba governorate. The high radionuclide level in groundwater in Jordan is attributed to the sandstone rock, which contains abundant thorium-enriched heavy mineral aggregations [26]. The high radionuclide level in groundwater in Turkey (Nevşehir province) is also attributed to the geological structure.…”