Indoor radon levels, influencing factors and annual effective doses in dwellings of Al-Kharj City, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Inhalation of radon gas and its decay products ranked as a main source of natural radiation exposure. It is considered as a major cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking. There are some very important factors that strongly affect the indoor radon levels such as: indoor airconditions, ventilation systems, and meteorological factors. In this article, we determined the indoor radon concentration and studied the seasonal variations of indoor radon levels to evaluate the annual effective dose received by the inhabitants in Al-Kharj city, Saudi Arabia. For this study, 84 houses were chosen and RAD 7 detector was used to examine cumulative radon exposure concentration from September 2014 to November 2017. Our measurements showed an obvious difference between radon concentration in winter (24.33 ± 11.10 Bq/m 3 ) and in summer (14.54 ± 5.50 Bq/m 3 ), while the average concentration in spring and autumn was very much close to the average annual radon concentration (19.23 ± 8.13 Bq/m 3 ). The average annual effective dose was found to be 0.49 mSv/y. The study revealed that the average indoor radon concentration as well as the annual effective dose rate is found to be less than the action level recommended by ICRP.

A Review of Studies on the Seasonal Variation of Indoor Radon-222 Concentration

“…In terms of methodology, measurement should ideally be performed four times a year, corresponding to the four seasons, to observe seasonal indoor radon concentrations. The detectors should be placed in the most frequently used parts of the house where the room occupants spent most of their time, such as bedrooms, sitting rooms, or kitchens, etc., To observe the effect of the types of building materials used, detectors should ideally be placed in houses made from different building materials with different designs at a height of 1 m from the floor and 0.5 m from the walls of the building (31,32). Parallel to the measurement process, the house owners should complete a questionnaire to gather information about the building materials used, age and shape or design of the house, etc.…”

High Indoor Radon Case Study: Influence of Meteorological Parameters and Indication of Radon Prone Area

“…Building ventilation (induced by opening the windows) might strengthen due to generating air flow. However, some authors reported mixed results about the indoor radon seasonality; the correlation of indoor radon concentration with specific environmental parameters is not consistent, and higher radon concentrations are most often observed in dwellings in the cold season of the year [34,46] and lower radon concentrations in the warm periods [47], while other studies found high indoor radon levels in the summer months [48,49]. The low radon flux in winter was caused by a combination of frozen ground and periodic snow melt, whereas low radon flux in spring most likely resulted from increased precipitation [50].…”

Low radiation dose to treat pneumonia and other inflammations

“…The need for more in-depth research is greatly apparent, with this also examining the question of optimum dose and the radioprotection of hospital staff. It may be noted that all the dosimetric coefficients given above refer to adult members of the Assuming the air volume in the lungs to be 3.2 × 10 −3 m 3 for 'Reference Man' and assuming further that the short-lived decay products will stay in the lungs, the dose rate due to alpharadiation can be determined as ICRP (1981) (47,54):…”