Correlations study between environmental radioactivity concentrations and some health risk indicators of soil samples in Amman city, Jordan

Abstract

Activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in surface soil samples, from different locations in Amman city-Jordan were estimated by a high purity germanium detector. The aim was to check the contribution of natural radionuclides to the annual gonadal dose equivalent and the excess lifetime cancer risk. The measured activity concentrations are tabulated for 226Ra (12.9 ± 1.0 to 69.0 ± 4.6Bqkg−1), 232Th (7.5 ± 1.0 to 70.9 ± 5.6Bqkg−1), and 40K (140.8 ± 15.2 to 465.5 ± 31.5Bqkg−1). The calculated mean values of the annual gonadal dose equivalent and the excess lifetime cancer risk were 0.320 ± 0.089mSv y−1and (0.196 ± 0.057) x10−3, respectively, and these values are within the world permissible values. In additions, the results show that 232Th was the main contributor to both the annual gonadal dose equivalents and the excess lifetime cancer risk, among the measured radionuclides, in most samples obtained from the investigated locations.