Abstract
Various products containing a small number of added radionuclides are commonly available for use worldwide. However, frequent use of such products puts the public at risk of radiation exposure. In this study, dose assessments to members of the public using consumer products containing naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) were conducted for various usage scenarios to evaluate the external and internal exposure dose. Data for this study were obtained from previous literature and were statistically analyzed using Boxplot to determine the input data for assessment. A normalized value of activity concentration was used for dose evaluation. In addition to other external and internal dose calculation codes, analytical calculations were used to perform age-dependent. Based on analytical calculations, the highest total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) received from necklace products at the upper whiskers with an activity concentration of 4.21 Bq/g for 238U, 24.4 Bq/g for 232Th, and 0.55 Bq/g for 40K for various age groups is 2.03 mSv/y for 1 year old, 1.24 mSv/y for 10 years old and 1.11 mSv/y for adult, which are above the international commission for radiation protection (ICRP) recommended public dose limit of 1 mSv/y. Results of external and internal exposure dose obtained using Microshield code, IMBA code and Visual Monte Carlo (VMC) code are all below the recommended public dose limit of 1 mSv/y.
Highlights
238 U, 24.4 Bq/g for 232 Th, and 0.55 Bq/g for 40 K for various age groups is 2.03 mSv/y for 1 year old, 1.24 mSv/y for 10 years old and 1.11 mSv/y for adult, which are above the international commission for radiation protection (ICRP) recommended public dose limit of 1 mSv/y
For all age groups and input ranges considered, the result of age-dependent for external and internal dose calculation using the analytical solution in Table S1 shows low dose reported for external dose assessment from measured activity concentration of consumer products incorporating naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs)
Internal dose results are higher than external dose and continue to increase as the range of input parameters increases from lower whiskers to median and upper whiskers
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Long-lived radionuclides are abundant in all rocks and minerals on earth, and many of them belong to the thorium (232 Th) and uranium (238 U) decay series. The majority of naturally occurring radionuclides belong to the radionuclides in the 238 U and 232 Th series, and the single decay radionuclide, 40 K. Occurring radioactive material (NORMs) are materials that contain such radionuclides [1]. Uranium and thorium are known as primordial radionuclides because they are available in all raw materials in varying concentrations, and are sources of natural background radiation in our environment
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