Determination of soil gas radon concentration from some locations of Gedarif town, Sudan, by using CR-39

Abstract

This work presents the results of the study of radon concentration in soil gas for 187 measurements of soil samples collected from different locations of Gedarif town in Sudan using the can technique, containing CR-39. From in this work, the soil gas radon concentrations were ranged from 4.20 ± 0.61 kBqm-3 to 15.15 ± 1.62 kBqm-3 with an average of (9.10 ± 1.31) kBqm-3. The annual effective dose was calculated that ranged from 18.71 ± 2.73 mSv to 67.53 ± 7.22 mSv, with an average value of 40.57 ± 5.86 mSv. A good correlation was observed between the radon concentration and soil depth. It was found that soil radon gas concentration increased with depth. The radon concentrations in the soil samples were found to be larger than the allowed limit from the World Health Organization. The results of this work were compared with national and worldwide results.

Keywords

• indoor radon
• annual effective dose rate
• CR-39
• lung cancer risk