It is commonly known that people are exposed to radon and its progenies since they spend about 35% of daytime at workplaces. This exposure has been reported to be more than 50% of the natural radiation. Therefore, determination of indoor radon concentration has been widely conducted by the scientists. This work presents indoor radon measurements and the associated annual dose equivalents obtained in 28 public buildings of the Afyonkarahisar province. The survey was conducted using passive nuclear track detectors and repeated quarterly during a year. The investigation focused on the seasonal and regional effects in indoor radon concentration anomalies. The measured values ranged from 13 Bq.m-3 to 1,932 Bq.m-3 , whereas the calculated average values were in the range of 21.75 Bq.m-3 and 1,032.50 Bq.m-3. Moreover, the mean indoor radon concentration and the corresponding annual dose equivalent values were obtained as 158.8313.16 Bq.m-3 and 1.250.10 mSv.y-1 , respectively.

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It is well known that radon is the main source of natural radiation exposure to the population. Indoor radon concentrations in an area are affected by ascending radon migration following the convection of groundwater and soil gas along fractures and faults in the bedrock sediments. There are various studies showing that positive radon anomalies in the soil gas are found to coincide with the locations of houses showing the highest concentrations. Moreover, soil gas radon levels and soil permeability are important factors in determining the radon potential of an area, because high permeability enables the increased migration of radon from the soil into houses. Since radon in homes originates mainly from soil gas radon, it is of public interest to study the correlation between soil gas radon and indoor radon in different geographic locations. In the present work, a correlation study was carried in conjunction with radon concentrations in soil gas and indoor environment of Afyonkarahisar Province. The provincial center was assumed to be divided into four regions according to the rock types and tectonic structure to show also the geological structure effect on radon concentrations. The indoor radon concentrations were measured in 74 dwellings using CR-39 passive nuclear track detectors, and the radon concentrations in soil gas were determined in 243 drilled holes using AlphaGUARD detector. The correlation coefficient of 0.97 was obtained between radon concentrations in soil gas and indoor environment of Afyonkarahisar Province.

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Radon concentrations were measured in four-well and spring water, which is used as drinking water, in the villages and districts of Afyonkarahisar province near Akşehir-Simav fault system for 24 month period, and the annual average effective dose amounts were calculated. In addition, the relationship between the average radon concentration results of potable water wells and the distance of the wells to the fault was examined for the first time in this region. Mean radon concentrations were measured between 1.9 ± 0.3 and 11.9 ± 0.5 Bql−1. The annual effective dose values were calculated between 11 ± 1.7 and 70.1 ± 2.8 μSvy−1 for infants, 4.0 ± 0.6 and 25.7 ± 1.0 μSvy−1 for children and 4.8 ± 0.7 and 30.5 ± 1.2 μSvy−1 for adults. In addition, the effect of the distance of the wells from the fault on the mean radon concentrations was also investigated. The regression coefficient (R2) was calculated as 0.85. The average radon concentration was observed higher in the water wells close to the fault. The highest mean radon concentration was measured in well no. 4, closest to the fault and 1.07 km away.