Open AccessEnvironmental radon, its exhalation rates and activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40kK in Northern India
Author(s) -
Rupinderjeet Kaur,
Deep Shikha,
Supreet Singh Pal,
Vimal Mehta
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nuclear technology and radiation protection
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.31
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1452-8185
pISSN - 1451-3994
DOI - 10.2298/ntrp2003268k
Subject(s) - radon , radium , radionuclide , environmental science , exhalation , uttar pradesh , uranium , environmental protection , environmental health , environmental chemistry , toxicology , socioeconomics , radiochemistry , biology , chemistry , medicine , materials science , quantum mechanics , sociology , physics , metallurgy , anatomy
Human beings are constantly exposed to radioactivity in the environment. As they are major sources of harmful radiation, radionuclides found in the atmosphere might result in a substantial potential risk to living beings. On the Earth's surface, the radioactive elements uranium and radium are naturally present, contributing to radon and thoron gases in the indoor as well as outdoor climate, soil and water. Radon is one of the most important toxins that, after cigarette smoking, is the second most common cause of generating lung cancer. Due to these health-related concerns, a lot of work has been undertaken by numerous research organizations to determine their levels at different locations throughout the world. This paper is an attempt to comprehensively report with different techniques all those studies being carried out in this part of India so that a current assessment of the indoor radon levels should be available for further work in this field. Six northern Indian states, viz. Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are considered for this examination. This study also provides data on exhalation rates and activity concentration of natural radionuclides (226Ra, 232Th, and 40K) present in these states.