Study of radon concentration and the associated health effects in selected hospitals in the southern part of West bank

Abstract

Indoor radon concentrations (CRn), potential alpha energy concentrations (PAEC), exposure to radon progeny (EP), annual absorbed dose (DRn), annual equivalent dose to the lung (HE) and lung cancer cases per million person (LCC) were estimated in nine hospitals of the southern part of West BankPalestine, by using time-integrated passive radon detectors. Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (SSNTD) technique were used for the measurements and carried out in the hospitals for an average exposure time of 75 day. The obtained mean values of CRn in those hospitals are ranges from 78 to 187 Bqm-3 , with highest mean value is recorded in Al- Etimad hospital, and the lowest is in Shaheera hospital. In addition, the estimated mean of DRn to both workers and patients ranges from 0.98 mSv y–1 to 2.34 mSv y–1 . The LCC risk for different rooms in the area under investigation varies from 8 per million person to 68 per million person. The results show that the mean CRn and the resulting doses not exceed the reference level recommended by ICRP (2010) in all hospitals. Therefore, health risk due to radon is a few possibilities. The results conclude that the ventilation condition is the major but not the only factor affects the results. Poor ventilated buildings showed the maximum annual effective dose on the other hand the number of floor has insignificant difference.