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A comprehensive study of radon in drinking waters of Hanumangarh district and the assessment of resulting dose to local population

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Abstract

Study of radon concentration in drinking water from different sources (groundwater and surface water) used across the Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan, India, was done using scintillation-based detector. The concentration of radon in surface water varied from 0.12 to 2.07 Bq/l with an average value of 0.62 Bq/l and a standard deviation of 0.55 Bq/l and in groundwater samples varied from 1.61 to 8.73 Bq/l with an average value of 4.8 Bq/l and a standard deviation of 2.24 Bq/l. The ingestion and inhalation dose were calculated to assess the health risk for infants, children and adults. The resulting average annual effective dose has been found to be considerably lower than the recommended safe limit of 0.1 msv/y (WHO, In: Incorporating first and second addenda, third ed. WHO Press, Geneva. 3rd ed. World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland, 2008). It can be concluded that radon in water does not pose a significant radiological health risk to the population of the studied area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the BRNS-DAE-GoI (Grant No. 36(4)/14/29/2016-BRNS/36032) for providing financial assistance, Dr BK Sahoo and his team at RP&AD, BARC Mumbai, India for providing all kind of technical support for the research work. We are extremely thankful to the residents of the study area for their support to carry out the field work.

Funding

The authors are thankful to the BRNS-DAE-GoI (Grant No. 36(4)/14/29/2016-BRNS/36032) for providing financial assistance to carry out research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda, Punjab, 151001, India

    Amit Kumar Singla, Sandeep Kansal & Supriya Rani

  2. RP&AD, BARC, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400085, India

    Sandeep Kanse

  3. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, 144001, India

    Rohit Mehra

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  1. Amit Kumar Singla
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Contributions

Amit Kumar Singla, Sandeep Kanse and Sandeep Kansal have designed the research plan and prepared the manuscript with contribution of Supriya Rani and Rohit Mehra. Amit Kumar Singla and Supriya Rani carried out all the field work for sample collection and analysis in the lab. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sandeep Kansal.

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Singla, A.K., Kanse, S., Kansal, S. et al. A comprehensive study of radon in drinking waters of Hanumangarh district and the assessment of resulting dose to local population. Environ Geochem Health 45, 443–455 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01304-x

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