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Measurement of soil-gas radon in some areas of northern Rajasthan, India

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Abstract

The health hazards of the radioactive gas radon on general public are well known. In order to understand the level and distribution of 222Rn concentrations in soil-gas in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, a 222Rn survey was carried out for the first time using RAD7, an electronic radon detector manufactured by Durridge Company (USA), at different locations covering a total area of 10,978 km 2, having a population of approximately 20 lakh. The measurement of 222Rn concentration in soil-gas was carried out at four different depths (10, 40, 70, and 100 cm). The radon concentration in soil-gas for 10, 40, 70, and 100 cm depths ranged from 0.09–4.25, 0.15–6.30, 0.50–9.18, and 0.72–10.40 kBq m −3, respectively. The minimum value of radon concentration is observed in 33 GB village at 10 cm depth and maximum for Mohanpura village at 100 cm depth. As expected, our data show an increase of soil-gas radon concentration levels with depth. The present results are compared with the available radon data from other studies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the residents of the study area for their cooperation during the fieldwork and to the Department of Physics, Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India for providing experimental facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Sciences, Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, 144 601, India

    Vikas Duggal

  2. Department of Applied Sciences, Ferozpur College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozshah, Ferozpur, 142 052, India

    Asha Rani

  3. Department of Physics, Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, 144 001, India

    Rohit Mehra

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  1. Vikas Duggal
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  2. Asha Rani
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  3. Rohit Mehra
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Correspondence to Vikas Duggal.

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Duggal, V., Rani, A. & Mehra, R. Measurement of soil-gas radon in some areas of northern Rajasthan, India. J Earth Syst Sci 123, 1241–1247 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0473-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0473-5

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