Abstract
Impact assessment of building materials is a focused topic in the field of radioecology. A radiological survey has conducted to monitor radioactivity of most common building materials in Semnan Province, Iran, and assess the radiation risk. Activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K were measured in 29 samples including nine commonly used building materials that were collected from local suppliers and manufacturers, using a high purity germanium gamma-ray detector. The activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K varied from 6.7±1 to 43.6±9, 5.9±1 to 60±11, and 28.5±3 to 1085±113 Bq kg−1 with averages of 26.8±5, 22.7±4, and 322.4±4 Bq kg−1, respectively. By applying multivariate statistical approach (Pearson correlation, cluster, and principal component analyses (PCA)), the radiological health hazard parameters were analyzed to obtain similarities and correlations between the various samples. The Pearson correlation showed that the 226Ra distribution in the samples is controlled by changing the 232Th concentration. The variance of 95.58% obtained from PCA resulted that the main radiological health hazard parameters exist due to the concentration of 226Ra and 232Th. The resulting dendrogram of cluster analysis also shows a well coincidence with the correlation analysis.
Highlights
Radiological hazard of building materials due to the presence of natural radioactivity has been highly investigated over the last years
The activity concentrations of 232Th in the measured samples ranged from 6±1 to 60±11 Bq kg−1 with mean value of 23±4 Bq kg−1
The activity concentrations of 40K were measured to be between 28±3 and 1085±113 Bq kg−1
Summary
Radiological hazard of building materials due to the presence of natural radioactivity has been highly investigated over the last years. Several studies have been carried out to estimate the radiological hazards and annual dose contribution of natural radioactivity in buildings. Nowadays a person spends 80% of their time indoor This is why it is important to determine the radiation exposure what comes from the building materials. Building materials contains different amounts of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs), mainly radionuclides of the 238U and 232Th decay series and from the 40K isotope. Due to this reason, radiation protection standards have been introduced by different organizations (ICRP 1994; European commission 1999; UNSCEAR 2000, 2008; El-Taher 2010; Council of the European union 2014). The 226Ra, 232Th and 40K worldwide activity concentrations for soils and building materials are given in the reports of the United
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