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The exposure of human population to natural radioactivity has become an important issue. Natural radioactivity is hazardous to health and is usually determined from 226Ra, 232Th and 40K. These radionuclides emit gamma radiations which on inhalation and ingestion lead to irradiation on human body. The aim of present work was to study the activity concentration and radium equivalent due to 226Ra, 232Th and 40K radionuclides. This study was carried out in soil samples of Shaheed Bhagat Singh District of Punjab, India using gamma ray detector NaI(Tl). Activity concentration of natural radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in soil of Shaheed Bhagat Singh District of Punjab varies from 28 Bq/kg to 38 Bq/kg, from 38.2 Bq/kg to 55.4 Bq/kg and from 201 Bq/kg to 376 Bq/kg with average values of 32.2 Bq/kg, 48.8 Bq/kg and 324.3 Bq/kg respectively. Radium equivalent from these radionuclides is found to vary from 96.7 Bq/kg to 139.6 Bq/kg with average value of 124.7 Bq/kg which is less than the safe limit of 370Bq/kg recommended by OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uranium and radium are the naturally occurring radioactive elements present in earth’s crust which on decay leads to radon and thoron gases in indoor and outdoor environment, soil and water. These gases further decay and decay products are harmful as well. Radon, being a naturally occurring radioactive gas can cause many health related malignancies to humans who have continuously exposed to its radiations. Radon is considered a significant contaminant that is second most frequent cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking. Due to these health-related issues a lot of work has been done to find out its levels at various places in the world by different research groups. The present work deals with assessment of annual effective dose rates due to indoor radon and thoron in some of the dwellings of Punjab. It has been shown that the higher radon concentration is 303.37 Bq.m-3 and lowest is 53.72 Bq.m-3 with the average value of 155.47±65.38 Bq.m-3. Surface exhalation rate in soil samples varies from 5.16 mBq.m-2.h-1 to 29.14 mBq.m-2.h-1 with the average value of 14.93±6.28 mBq.m-2.h-1. Mass exhalation rate in samples varies from 1.25 mBq.kg-1.h-1 to 7.04 mBq.kg-1.h-1 with average value of 3.61±1.52 mBq.kg-1.h-1. The mean values of radon concentration and exhalation rates are nearly the same and less than the world wide average. Therefore, the health hazards related to radiation are expected to be negligible in the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radon and its progeny are major contributors in the radiation dose received by general population of the world. Because radon is a noble gas, a large portion of it is free to migrate away from radium. The primary sources of radon in the houses are soils and rocks source emanations, emanation from building materials, and entry of radon into a structure from outdoor air. Keeping this in mind the study of radon exhalation rate from some soil samples of the Kharar, Punjab has been carried out using Can Technique. The equilibrium radon concentration in various soil samples of Kharar area of district Mohali varied from 12.7 Bqm-3 to 82.9 Bqm-3 with an average of 37.5 ± 27.0 Bqm-3. The radon mass exhalation rates from the soil samples varied from 0.45 to 2.9 mBq/kg/h with an average of 1.4 ± 0.9 mBq/kg/h and radon surface exhalation rates varied from 10.4 to 67.2 mBq/m²/h with an average of 30.6 ± 21.8 mBq/m²/h. The radon mass and surface exhalation rates of the soil samples of Kharar, Punjab were lower than that of the world wide average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radon is considered a significant contaminant that is second most frequent cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking. The estimation of radon gas and its exhalation rates in soil is helpful to study many health hazards due to radon. The present research work deal with the estimation of radon and thoron concentrations along with annual effective dose rate due to both radon and thoron in Shaheed Bhagat Singh District of Punjab. This paper also shows radon concentrations, radon mass and surface exhalation rates and radium content in some of the soil samples.It has been found that radon and thoron levels in air varies from 34.6 Bqm−3 to 135.5 Bqm−3 and from 56.9 Bqm-3 to 94.1 Bqm-3 with mean values of 65.8 Bqm−3 and 73.6 Bqm− 3, respectively. Annual effective dose rates due to radon and thoron are comes out to be 1.9 mSv and 1.8 mSv, respectively. In soil of SBS District the radon concentration varies from 104.4 Bq.m−3 to 303.3 Bq.m−3 with the average value of 175 Bq.m-3. It has been shown that radon mass exhalation rate varies from 2.4mBq.kg-1.h-1 to 7.0mBq.kg-1.h-1 with average value of 4.0mBq.kg−1.h-1. Radon surface exhalation rate varies from 10.0mBq.m−2.h−1 to 29.1mBq.m−2.h−1 with average value of 16.8mBq.m−2.h−1. The radium content in soil samples varies from 1.6 Bq.kg−1 to 4.7 Bq.kg−1 with the average value of 2.7 Bq.kg−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radon (222Rn) and its decay products are the major source of the inhalation dose received by humans due to natural radioactivity. This environmental radioactivity could lead to significant potential risk for living beings as it includes harmful radionuclides. The present work deals with assessment of annual effective dose rates due to indoor radon and thoron in some of the dwellings of Punjab. The equivalent dose rate to lungs (H) due to indoor radon has also been estimated. The indoor radon concentration varies from 18.3Bq m-3 to 122.2Bq m-3 with average value of 63.86Bq m-3. The thoron concentration varies from 23.3 to 172.2Bq m-3 with average value of 89.45Bq m-3. The average values of annual effective dose due to radon and thoron are 1.847 mSv and 2.25 mSv respectively. The higher values of thoron may be due to the higher amount of Thorium (232Th) present as compared to the Radium (226Ra). Equivalent dose rate to lungs varies from 14.64 to 97.8 nSv with average value of 51.15 nSv. The mean value of the inhalation dose from 222Rn and 220Rn in the study area is less than the world’s average mean inhalation dose for 222Rn and 220Rn. Therefore, the health hazards related to radiation are expected to be negligible in the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]