Measuring of Radon Gas Concentrations in serum samples of Lung cancer patients in Babylon governorate, Iraq

Abstract

The current study aims to assess the radon concentration in blood serum of lung cancer patients in Babylon governorate and compared the measured values to the values of healthy people. Radon (222Rn) is one of typical alpha-particle emitters. Cancer cases, especially lung cancer, have been increased in a notable way in Babylon Governorate particularly after gulf wars in 1991 and 2003. So, measuring the concentration of Radon gas in serum of lung cancer patients is important to find out the relations between these cases and the war effect. This has been done in this work using a CR-39 detector to measure the alpha particles emitted from radon. Thirty samples of patients and healthy people (15 from each group) were collected. Some of these samples are collected from Babylon oncology center and some from the oncology center in Imam Al-sadiq hospital. At the end of the exposure time (70 days), track density was calculated by using TASLIMAGE system. The results showed that the mean concentrations of radon for lung cancer patients were 19.2234 ± 2.15907 Bq/m3. Further, the concertation of radon in people with lung cancer is considerably larger than that in healthy group. Interestingly, the results, also, showed that all the measured values of radon concentration (whether of patients or healthy people) are within the acceptable limit (200 Bq/m3) which is designated by both International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).