Natural radioactivity and human exposure by raw materials and end product from cement industry used as building materials

Stojanovska, Zdenka; Nedelkovski, Duško; Ristova, Mimoza

doi:10.1016/j.radmeas.2010.06.023

Cited by 33 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the case of other manufactured materials, some industrial residues are used in the cement industry as raw materials. Among raw materials used in cement production, gypsum shows the lower mean activity, while sand, puzzolana and fly ash show important radioactive content (Stojanovska et al 2010).…”

Section: Other Radioactive Isotopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decay effects of pollutants on stony materials in the built environment

Sanjurjo-Sánchez

Alves

2011

Environ Chem Lett

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This review discuss the effects that pollutants have on stony materials applied on the built environment, illustrating different macroscopical products (pathologies) that can affect historical and modern architectural works. The impact of the decay processes is related to the susceptibility of the materials, environmental conditions and the kind of pollutants that degrade building materials. Here are reviewed the main decay processes resulting from the actions of gases, particulate matter and solutions (from wet deposition to capillary rising and including circulating waters such as run-off), showing that besides atmospheric pollution, also pollutants rising from the ground can cause important deterioration on building materials. Following, the use of tracers is considered for the study of pollutant sources and migration, including neoformation minerals (that might also constitute markers of environmental conditions) and chemical tracers, giving special attention to isotopic tracers, namely to proposals regarding the use of some stable and radioactive isotopes for the study of pollutants that have strong potential but have not been tested yet are also presented. At the end of this chapter, some final considerations are made on the problem of durability assessment of materials in the built environment and also on the use of tracers to assess the origin of damaging compounds in the built environment.

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Section: Other Radioactive Isotopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decay effects of pollutants on stony materials in the built environment

Sanjurjo-Sánchez

Alves

2011

Environ Chem Lett

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“…Lightweight building blocks may contain both slag and fly-ash. Several publications detail representative 210 Pb and 210 Po activity concentration data for building materials, focussing on eastern European countries where the practice of adding smelter slags and fly-ash was commonplace [130][131][132]. The environmental impact of radionuclide release during processing of granite rock for ornamental stone has also been explored [133].…”

Section: Pb and 210 Po In Other Anthropogenic Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

210Pb and 210Po in Geological and Related Anthropogenic Materials: Implications for Their Mineralogical Distribution in Base Metal Ores

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The distributions of 210 Pb and 210 Po, short half-life products of 238 U decay, in geological and related anthropogenic materials are reviewed, with emphasis on their geochemical behaviours and likely mineral hosts. Concentrations of natural 210 Pb and 210 Po in igneous and related hydrothermal environments are governed by release from crustal reservoirs. 210 Po may undergo volatilisation, inducing disequilibrium in magmatic systems. In sedimentary environments (marine, lacustrine, deltaic and fluvial), as in soils, concentrations of 210 Pb and 210 Po are commonly derived from a combination of natural and anthropogenic sources. Enhanced concentrations of both radionuclides are reported in media from a variety of industrial operations, including uranium mill tailings, waste from phosphoric acid production, oil and gas exploitation and energy production from coals, as well as in residues from the mining and smelting of uranium-bearing copper ores. Although the mineral hosts of the two radionuclides in most solid media are readily defined as those containing parent 238 U and 226 Ra, their distributions in some hydrothermal U-bearing ores and the products of processing those ores are much less well constrained. Much of the present understanding of these radionuclides is based on indirect data rather than direct observation and potential hosts are likely to be diverse, with deportments depending on the local geochemical environment. Some predictions can nevertheless be made based on the geochemical properties of 210 Pb and 210 Po and those of the intermediate products of 238 U decay, including isotopes of Ra and Rn. Alongside all U-bearing minerals, the potential hosts of 210 Pb and 210 Po may include Pb-bearing chalcogenides such as galena, as well as a range of sulphates, carbonates, and Fe-oxides. 210 Pb and 210 Po are also likely to occur as nanoparticles adsorbed onto the surface of other minerals, such as clays, Fe-(hydr)oxides and possibly also carbonates. In rocks, unsupported 210 Pb-and/or 210 Po-bearing nanoparticles may also be present within micro-fractures in minerals and at the interfaces of mineral grains. Despite forming under very limited and special conditions, the local-scale isotopic disequilibrium they infer is highly relevant for understanding their distributions in mineralized rocks and processing products.

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“…The safe use of materials in building construction requires I α to be less than 1. This limit corresponds to the design action level for the 222 Rn concentration of 200 Bq.m -3 on an annual average basis for future buildings (EC, 1990;Stojanovska et al, 2010).…”

Section: Alpha Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%