Assessment of radiological risk associated with thoron gas at primary schools in Al-Najaf city, Iraq

Abstract

Children spend considerable time at home and school, so school is likely to be a second source of natural radionuclide exposure after home. This study evaluates the radiological risk associated with thoron gas in the air within the building of one hundred primary schools in Al-Najaf City, Iraq, using a CR-39 detector. The results of the average value of thoron concentration detector, the annual effective dose (AED), Excessive Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) × 10−3, and Lung Cancer Case (LCC) × 10−9 measured in the building of the schools were 7.47 ± 2.85 Bq/m3, 0.03 ± 0.01 mSv/y, 0.11 ± 0.04, and 0.54 ± 0.20, respectively. All the results of indoor thoron were below the global average limit. The results of the radiological survey due to thoron concentrations for studied primary schools suggest that the radionuclides and their radiological hazard indexes in all studied schools in AL Najaf city, Iraq, do not impose a health hazard.