Assessment of Environmental Radioactivity and Health Hazard in Soil, Water, and Stone Samples in Siverek Town of Sanliurfa Province in Southeastern Turkey

Abstract

Human life depends on water and soil where our food mostly needs to be grown. Let us not forget the nature and rocks that we are surrounded in terms of structural base. For that reason, it’s crucial to determine their radioactivity level not just to help mapping the country’s radiation background measurements, but to assess people’s safety and protection. Especially, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), World Health Organization (WHO), or the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) develop safety standards to protect the health and to minimize the danger for people’s life before anything happens. In this specific study, the most densely populated county, called Siverek, in the region of Sanliurfa municipality was selected. For the analysis of soil and rock, respectively 11 and 7 distinctive locations were considered to determine the activity levels in Harran University laboratory. As to water samples, only two samples were proceeded to detect total alpha and beta activities by Cekmece Nuclear Research and Education Centre (CNAEM) by Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK).With regard to analysis tools, Ortec brand NaI(Tl) scintillation detector was used to detect any activity based on naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), such as 238U, 232Th, and 40K elements in soil and stone samples with the help of digibase MCA system. For water activity level investigation, low-level activity measurement system of LB770-PC with 10 channels, were used.As a result, it’s expected to find the levels of the most encountered activity units; such as Radium equivalent dose, indoor and outdoor external absorbed doses, internal and external hazard indices, indoor and outdoor annual effective doses, indoor and outdoor excess life-time cancer risks lower than the values that some organizations stated in their literature.