Abstract
An amount of Pb, ranging from 2.3 to 680 ppm, in the soil and vegetation of Kuwait has been observed and reported in this paper. 4He++ ions of about 32 MeV, from the Nuffield Cyclotron of Birmingham, are employed in the production on α-emitting radioisotopes from Pb. Two types of SSNTDs, CR-39 and LR 115, have been employed in the counting of a-tracks in various samples and SRM-Glass Standards. A subsequent XRF analysis of the samples for the matrix and Pb-content also indicates that high values of Pb do exist.
Corrections that may arise in such similar measurements using SSNTDs, due to source thickness and detector position, effective atomic number, Zef, values for unknown and standard materials and the decay correction factor have also been incorporated in obtaining the final values of Pb content.
Results indicate that the distribution of Pb in Kuwait is of recent origin and, hence, the pollution level due to Pb is mostly from external sources. Besides, the technique employed in such studies is found to be quite useful where Pb values in any material could vary over a wide range and the destruction of the samples is not intended as in the present work.
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Malik, S.R., Atari, N.A. & Al-Mishwt, A.T. Uses of a nuclear technique and SSNTDs in the studies of lead pollution in Kuwait. Water Air Soil Pollut 25, 15–32 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00159622
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00159622