Terrestrial gamma radiation dose measurement and health hazard along river Alaknanda and Ganges in India

Abstract

GangesAlaknanda Terrestrial gamma radiation Health hazard a b s t r a c t Direct measurement of absorbed dose rate in air due to exposure from outdoor terrestrial g radiation and assessment of consequent public health hazard continues to be of environmental and public concern. Present study was aimed to establish a baseline data of annual effective dose and to assess the associated health risk from outdoor terrestrial g radiation along the river Alaknanda and Ganges of India. Terrestrial g radiation exposure doses (excluding cosmic radiation) were measured using a Plastic Scintillation Counter.Absorbed dose rates in air were measured at eight designated locations from Nandprayag to Allahabad along the river. From the average absorbed dose rates, annual effective dose (AED) and excess life time cancer risks (ELCR) were calculated by standard method. Results showed that absorbed dose rates in air ranged between 81.33 ± 2.34 nSv.h À1 and 144 ± 5.77 nSv.h À1 and calculated AED ranged between 0.10 ± 0.012 mSv.y À1 to 0.18 ± 0.007 mSv.y À1 at the designated locations along these rivers. Calculated ELCR were found in the range of 0.375 Â 10 À3 to 0.662 Â 10 À3 . Present study measured the outdoor g radiation levels along the rivers. The calculated annual effective doses and life time cancer risk were found higher than the world average value at higher altitudes. But the measured doses and calculated risks at plains were close to that of reported average values.

Geological Formation and Soil Type Impact on Terrestrial Gamma Radiation Dose: A Statistical Approach of Dange Shuni (LGA) Sokoto State Nigeria

“…The variations in the mean TGRD values could be attributed to the parent materials from which the soils were derived. Soils, derived from acidic rocks (like granite) have higher TGRD contributions compared to soils derived from other rock types (Sharma et al, 2014) The results of this work were found to be in good agreement with those previously reported from different places with similar soil settings (Florou and Kritidis 1992; Garba et al, 2014;Garba et al, 2020).…”

Assessment of background ionizing radiation exposure levels in industrial buildings in Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria

“…) and in India (0.375-0.662 x 10-3). 42,[46][47][48][49] The ELCR to the organs was however comparable to the value of 3.21x10 -3 obtained for Northern Pakistan where the researcher reported numerous deaths from cancer. 50 This again calls for further investigations for Nnewi and Anambra State with emphasis on the radionuclide contents of the soils.…”

Natural Radioactivity Concentration and Radiological Evaluation in Soil Samples Around Dangote Cement Factory Ibese, Ogun State, Nigeria

“…However, the value of this index must be less than unity in order to keep the radiation hazard insignificant. The estimated values of excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) for all the samples from Table 3 ranged from 1.08 x 10 -4 to 1.46 x 10 -4 which is lower than world average of 2.9 x 10 -4 [19].…”