Indoor External Radiation Risk in Densely Populated Regions of Southern Nigeria

• Published in: Earth systems and environment 2018-05, Vol.2 (1), p.95-102
• Main Authors: Ife-Adediran, Oluwatobi O., Uwadiae, Iyobosa B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Background radiation; Building materials; Buildings; Climate; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Construction materials; Data collection; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth System Sciences; Environmental Science and Engineering; Exposure; Geography; Health risks; In situ measurement; Indoor environments; Ionizing radiation; Lung cancer; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Original Article; Outdoors; Population density; Radiation; Radiation hazards; Radiation measurement; Radioactivity; Radioisotopes; Raw materials
• ISSN: 2509-9426; 2509-9434
• DOI: 10.1007/s41748-018-0039-9

It is known that certain types of building materials contain significant concentrations of natural radionuclides; consequently, exposure to indoor background radiation is from the combined radioactivity from the soil as well as building materials; indoor exposures therefore have higher radiation hazard potentials than outdoor exposures in this regard and hence, need to be monitored. In this paper, an evaluation of background ionizing radiation from different buildings in Lagos and Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria was carried out to determine the exposure rate of the general public to indoor ionizing radiation. 630 in situ measurements from the different buildings were taken using a Geiger Muller counter (model GQ-320 Plus). The indoor dose rates (i.e., 50–120 nGy/h) were within the world average values while the Annual Effective Dose for most of the buildings were above the world average AED for indoor gamma exposure from building materials. The mean AED for Lagos and Ibadan due to indoor exposures were 0.37 and 0.39 mSv/y with Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk of 0.99E−3 and 1.05E−3, respectively.