The Collective Dose Equivalent Due to the Naturally Occurring Radionuclides in Building Materials in the German Democratic Republic. Part 1

Abstract

The 226Ra, 232Th and 40K concentrations of building materials have been investigated by gamma spectrometry. The results demonstrate that 90% of bricks and concrete have 226Ra concentrations less than 85 mBq g-1 or less than 50 mBq g-1, respectively. In some waste products of mining and industry especially, the 226Ra concentrations are high compared to those of common building materials. Based on the results, the mean gamma dose equivalent to individuals and the collective dose equivalent have been calculated using the computer code ZYLIA-3. The mean indoor gamma dose equivalent to individuals is 510 mu Sv y-1 and the collective dose equivalent 8.5 X 10(3) man-Sv y-1. The outdoor values range from 60 to 81 mu Sv y-1 and 1.0 X 10(3) to 1.4 X 10(3) man-Sv y-1, respectively.

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

“…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).…”

Radiological impact of phosphogypsum surface application in a no-till system in Southern Brazil

“…228 Ra has the half-lifetime of 5.75 years and the emission of β particles. Both Ra elements have a biological behavior similar to Ca deposited in mammal bones (Choppin & Rydberg, 1980) The presence of radionuclides has generated discussions on the impact of PG on human health (Ettenhuber & Lehmann, 1986), and its use in agriculture is restricted by certain countries. In the USA, the maximum limit of 226 Ra in PG was set as 370 Bq kg -1 (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1998 Despite the various studies found in the literature on the use of PG in agriculture (Hull & Burnett, 1996;Burnett & Elzerman, 2001;Beddow et al, 2006;Papastefanou et al, 2006;Abril et al, 2008Abril et al, , 2009, there are only few studies on the presence of radionuclides in PG produced in Brazil (Silva, 2001;Silva et al, 2001;Saueia et al, 2005;Santos et al, 2006;Jacomino et al, 2009).…”