Study on External Exposure Doses Received by the Cuban Population from Environmental Radiation Sources

Abstract

The results are described of the study carried out with the aim of assessing doses received by the Cuban population due to the external exposure to environmental radiation sources. Contributions of cosmic radiation's ionising and indirectly ionising components to these doses, as well as the fraction resulting from terrestrial radiation, were also assessed as part of this study. Measurements made enabled us to estimate representative effective average doses received by the Cuban population from external exposure to cosmic and terrestrial radiation. Both outdoor and indoor permanency were taken into account for this estimate as well as the distribution of the Cuban population by altitude. The average representative dose due to cosmic radiation was estimated to be 298 +/- 17 microSv per year, while the dose received by terrestrial radiation represented 180 +/- 14 microSv per year, for a total annual dose of 78 +/- 20 microSv. These values are within the range of those reported throughout the world by other authors.

Natural radionuclide content in building materials and gamma dose rate in dwellings in Cuba

“…For the assessment of the ionising component of cosmic radiation, some measurements were performed aboard of a wood and plastic boat in the middle of four deep artificial basins throughout the country and in two Bays located in the provinces of Camagü ey and in Holguín (Brígido Flores et al, 1999;Tomá s Zerquera et al, 2001). The readings fluctuated between 24 nGy h À1 and 49 nGy h À1 with an average value of 31.8 nGy h À1 at sea level.…”

“…Average absorbed dose rates were utilized together with an occupancy factor of 0.8 (Tomá s Zerquera et al, 2001). The values obtained for the five provinces, listed in Table 2, range from 83 mSv yr À1 (Holguín) to 231 mSv yr À1 (Camagü ey) and are lower than 309 mSv yr À1 obtained for the former German Democratic Republic (Ettenhuber and Lehmann, 1986), 570 mSv yr À1 reported for Jamaica (Pinnock, 1991), 470 mSv yr À1 estimated for Jordan (Ahmad et al, 1998) and 209-400 mSv yr À1 reported for Nigeria (Ademola and Farai, 2005).…”

A large and feasible national survey representative of population exposure to outdoor gamma radiation in urban areas

“…This significantly low percentage is justified by considering the difficulties associated with the selection of measurement points, assuring high population and territory coverage as well as easy access, the need for personnel to carry out measurements at locations that are typically distant from each other, the high costs for instrumentation, and the long duration of the study. All these factors lead to only three national surveys, of which only one has a high number of measurements, as found in literature, based on on-site measurements in urban environments – i.e., Clouvas, Xanthos ( 28 ), Clouvas, Xanthos ( 29 ) in Greece with 1,039 measurements, Svoukis and Tsertos ( 30 ) in Cyprus with 70 measurements, and Zerquera, Alonso ( 31 ) in Cuba with 142 measurements.…”

Terrestrial gamma radiation dose rate in Cienfuegos, Cuba

“…In Cuba, information related to environmental terrestrial radiation is very limited. There are only a few relevant studies (Prendes-Alonso M. et al, 1998;Tomás Zerquera et al, 2001, 2007. In Cienfuegos, Alonso-Hernández et al (2006) published the levels of natural radionuclides in marine sediments of Cienfuegos Bay, observing an anomalous distribution.…”