Inhalation dose due to radon, thoron, and progenies in dwellings of a hill station.

Abstract

The general public spends a major portion of their time in an indoor environment and hence receives a considerable amount of radiation. Knowledge about indoor radiation is important in order to arrive at the actual effective dose received by residents. The indoor radon, thoron, and progeny concentrations observed in the present study were found to vary with seasons of a given year. The highest and lowest indoor average radon, thoron, and progeny levels were observed during winter and summer seasons, respectively. The concentrations of indoor radon, thoron, and progenies were found to vary with the type of houses. The highest 222Rn, 220Rn, and progeny concentrations were observed in mud houses and the lowest values were recorded in wooden houses. The indoor 222Rn concentration correlated well with concentration of its grandparent 238U in underlying soil with a correlation coefficient of 0.87. The correlation between indoor 220Rn and 232Th in the underlying soil was found to be 0.64. The estimated effective doses received by the general public in the present study due to indoor radon and thoron were 1.49±0.49 and 1.30±0.53mSv/year, respectively. The annual effective doses due to radon and thoron progenies were estimated as 0.76±0.27 and 0.47±0.23mSv/year, respectively. The contributions from 222Rn, 220Rn, and corresponding progenies to the annual effective doses received were 37, 32, 19, and 12%, respectively. The general public living in the study area receives an inhalation dose of 4.02mSv/year due to indoor radon, thoron, and progenies, which were found to be less than the action limit of ICRP 2009.