Indoor Radon Concentration Measurements in Tarqumia Girl Schools at Western Hebron Region – Palestine

Abstract

In this study, radon ( 222 Rn) in indoor air was surveyed in 62 rooms of 4 girl governmental schools in Tarqumia town that lies in the north western part of Hebron city in Palestine, and the annual effective dose equivalent due to the inhalation of radon and its daughters for 2318 pupils and 102 stuff members engage the rooms surveyed were also measured. TASTRAK, a solid state nuclear track detector has been used to measure indoor radon concentrations at these schools. 124 radon detectors were mounted in 4 school buildings. The Radon measurements were performed for 70 days between February 2006 and April 2006. The results showed that the radon concentration and the annual effective dose equivalent in these schools varied from 12.0 to 232.5 Bq/m³ with an average 34.1 Bq/m³ and 0.62 to 12.0 mSv/yr with an average 1.76 mSv/yr respectively. The mean values of radon concentration in Tarqumia secondary girl’s school, Al-aqsa elementary girl’s school, Umsalama elementary girl’s school and Tarqumia elementary girl’s school were 35.8, 26.7, 25.9 and 47.8 Bq/m³ respectively, and the mean values of the annual effective dose equivalent were 1.85, 1.38, 1.34 and 2.47 mSv/yr respectively. We found from the above results that, most of the values were of nominal state values (that is less than allowed global values) and in few places the concentration were higher than the allowed global values, that would result in annual effective dose higher than annual global level values (1.3 mSv/yr). poor ventilation and old buildings were, most mobility the main cause of these high concentration. Improving ventilation of these places will increase …