Assessment of physicochemical and radon-attributable radiological parameters of drinking water samples of Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand.

This study evaluates the quality of drinking water samples (sample size = 52) taken from various locations of Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. The parameters include physiochemical properties viz. total dissolved solids (TDS in mg/L), electrical conductivity/salinity (µS/cm), pH and radiological dose attributable to radon in water (µSv/y). TDS values for the tested samples varied within the range of 18–434 mg/L with average value of 148 mg/L. Electrical conductivity and pH for these samples was measured as 36–868 µS/cm (average: 296 µS/cm) and 6.8–8.2 (average: 7.2), respectively. Radon activity concentration for these water samples was measured using scintillation-based radon monitor, immediately after sampling at the location site. Radon activity concentration was measured as 0.6–81.9 Bq/L with an average value of 17.8 Bq/L. The paper also estimates the annual effective ingestion dose (µSv/y), annual effective inhalation dose (µSv/y) and total effective dose (µSv/y) attributable to radon in drinking water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]