Radon, thoron and their progenies in the indoor environment are considered as
one of the health hazards. The alpha emitting nature of these gases made it
possible to detect in indoor environment with the help of nuclear track
detector techniques. The soil is the main source of indoor radon as it
contains varying amounts of uranium and thorium. Thus the exhalation of radon
from soil and its environmental activity needs to be studied. In the present
study, the measurement of the indoor radon-thoron from the indoor environment
and exhalation from soil are carried out using solid state nuclear track
detector technique from Sirsa and Bhiwani districts of northern part of
India. The canister technique was used to measure the radon ex- halation rate
from the soil samples collected from the study area and pinhole based
radon-thoron dosimeters were used to measure indoor radon and thoron
concentration. The results show that indoor radon concentration varied from 9
to 28 Bq/m3, with an average of 18.9 Bq/m3 and from 5 to 21 Bq/m3, with an
average of 13.8 Bq/m3, for Bhiwani and Sirsa, respectively. Similarly, thoron
concentration varied from 14 to 48 Bq/m3, with average of 28.9 Bq/m3 and 27
to 54 Bq/m3, with the average of 39.0 Bq/m3, for Bhiwani and Sirsa,
respectively. The mass exhalation rates from soil samples were also measured,
to estimate their contribution to indoor radon. A correlation study was
carried out between soil exhalation rates and indoor radon concentration.
Calibration of the Politrack(R) system based on CR39 solid-state nuclear track detectors for passive indoor radon concentration measurements