Health hazards associated with radon present in soil of Nizampur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Abstract

Over 50% of the annual dosage is caused by inhaling radon, thoron, and their decay products. Additionally, indoor concentrations of radon and thoron's decay agents are primarily responsible for the inhalation doses linked to these gases. This study aimed to measure the activity of radon in soil of Nizampur, and associated cancer risk using an RAD7 detector. The range and average values of radon in soil were found to be 994-14,700 Bq m^-3 and 6184 Bq m^-3, respectively. Radon exhalation rate ranged from 220 to 3442 Bq m^-2 h^-1 with an average value of 1447 Bq m^-2 h^-1. The statistical analysis of radon in the soil shows that due to possible localized sources or measurement inconsistency, ambient radon data often exhibits mild skewness or kurtosis, which is shown by minor deviations at the extremes (tails). Based on the values of radon exhalation rate which were found higher than the world permissible value of 57.60 Bq m^-2 h^-1, it is concluded that the soil of the study area may pose health hazards if it is used for construction or other purposes.