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Natural environmental radioactivity and the corresponding health risk in Johor Bahru District, Johor, Malaysia

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Abstract

This study aims to obtain the baseline data on environmental terrestrial radiation and to assess the corresponding health risk in Johor Bahru District, Johor, Malaysia. The mean activity concentrations of 232Th, 226Ra and 40K were 119 ± 6, 51 ± 4 and 158 ± 21 Bq kg−1, respectively. Primordial radionuclide 232Th is the main contributor to gamma dose rate and the mean found to be 135 nGy h−1. Gross alpha and gross beta activity concentrations in water were 0.012 ± 0.003 and 0.234 ± 0.018 Bq L−1, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Post-Doctoral Fellowship Scheme for the project: “Environmental Radiology of Peninsular Malaysia”, Research Management Center (RMC), University Technology Malaysia (UTM) and for the project: "Hybrid simulation techniques for site selection and assessment of radiological consequences of routine and accidental releases of radionuclides from pioneer nuclear power plants in Malaysia". Also, The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) and University Technology Malaysia (UTM) for support and funding under UTM Research University Grant; QJ130000.2526.03H67.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Muneer Aziz Saleh, Ahmad Termizi Ramli, Yasser Alajerami, Mohammad Hasan Abu Mhareb, Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu & Noor Zati Hani Binti Abu Hanifah

  2. Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Muneer Aziz Saleh & Khaidzir bin Hamzah

  3. National Atomic Energy Commission (NATEC), Sanaa, Yemen

    Muneer Aziz Saleh

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  1. Muneer Aziz Saleh
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  2. Ahmad Termizi Ramli
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  3. Khaidzir bin Hamzah
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  4. Yasser Alajerami
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Correspondence to Muneer Aziz Saleh.

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Saleh, M.A., Ramli, A.T., bin Hamzah, K. et al. Natural environmental radioactivity and the corresponding health risk in Johor Bahru District, Johor, Malaysia. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 303, 1753–1761 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3631-y

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