scholarly journals 220Rn (Thoron) Geohazard in Room Air of Earthen Dwellings in Vietnam

Geofluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dương Nguyễn-Thuỳ ◽  
Hướng Nguyễn-Văn ◽  
Jan P. Schimmelmann ◽  
Nguyệt Thị Ánh Nguyễn ◽  
Kelsey Doiron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Radiation Dose ◽  
Radiation Exposure ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Human Health Risk ◽  
Radiation Hazard ◽  
Inhalation Dose ◽  
Interior Walls

Thoron’s (220Rn) contribution to α-radiation exposure is usually considered negligible compared to that of 222Rn (radon). Despite its short half-life of 55.6 seconds, thoron can be exhaled from porous surface layers of building materials into indoor air where people subsequently inhale radioisotopes, including metallic radioactive progeny. Bare surfaces of dry porous soil with relatively high 232Th content can pose a thoron radiation hazard in indoor air. On northern Vietnam’s Đồng Văn karst plateau, the spatial distribution of thoron was determined in indoor air of traditional earthen and other types of dwellings using portable RAD7 and SARAD® RTM 2200 detectors. “Mud houses” are constructed with local compacted soil and typically do not have any floor or wall coverings (i.e., no plaster, wallpaper, or paint). Detailed measurements in a mud house revealed levels of thoron in room air averaging >500 Bq m-3. The spatial distribution of α-radiation from thoron in indoor air at a distance of about 1 m from interior walls was fairly homogeneous and averaged ~200 Bq m-3. Most concerning, from a human health perspective, were the high thoron concentrations of up to 884 Bq m-3 in sleeping areas near mud walls. The average annual thoron radiation dose to inhabitants of mud houses was estimated based on 13 hours of daily occupancy, including daily activities and sleeping. The estimated average thoron inhalation dose of 27.1 mSv a-1 during sleeping hours near mud surfaces accounts for nearly 75% of the total estimated radon and thoron inhalation dose of 37.4 mSv a-1 from indoor mud house air. Our conservative annual radiation dose estimates do not include subsequent radiation from inhaled metallic progeny of thoron. Our data demonstrate a significant human health risk from radiation exposure and a critical need for remediation in traditional northern Vietnamese mud house dwellings.

Spatial distribution of fluoride and nitrate in groundwater and its associated human health risk assessment in residents living in Western Khorasan Razavi, Iran

2019 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 176-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Qasemi ◽  
Mojtaba Afsharnia ◽  
Mansoureh Farhang ◽  
Mansour Ghaderpoori ◽  
Abdolreza Karimi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Human Health Risk ◽  
Human Health Risk Assessment

scholarly journals Human health risk assessment and spatial distribution of fluoride from shallow groundwater in a region of southwest China

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 733-747
Author(s):  
Kai Zhang ◽  
Xiaonan Li ◽  
Xinhui Zheng ◽  
Changdi Qiang ◽  
Xinghao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Human Health Risk ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Human Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Noncarcinogenic Risk ◽  
Regional Groundwater

Abstract This article took fluoride in shallow groundwater of a township in southwestern China as the research object. Fifty sampling points were set up in the studied area. The fluoride was tested by the ion-selective electrode method. The health risk model recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency was used. Based on the Chinese population, human health risk assessment was performed for fluoride in shallow groundwater in the studied area, and the Kriging interpolation method was used to simulate the spatial distribution of fluoride concentration in the area. The research showed the following. (1) The concentration of fluoride in the shallow groundwater samples in the studied area was 0.06–0.78 mg/L, with an average value of 0.35 mg/L, which was in line with the limit value (1.00 mg/L) in the standards for drinking water quality (GB 5749–2006), but its maximum value was 0.78 mg/L, which was 1.86 times of the background value. (2) The average hazard index of children and adults were 0.27 and 0.15, respectively, which were less than 1, and the risk was at an acceptable level; the noncarcinogenic risk of children was 1.8 times that of adults; the average values of total risk quotient for groundwater fluoride intake by children and adults were 0.27 and 0.15, respectively, and 1.19E-03 and 7.26E-04 by skin, respectively. This indicated that of the two routes, oral intake was the main route of exposure to fluoride. The noncarcinogenic risk values of fluoride in rural and urban areas were similar, and both were less than 1. (3) The high-value areas of fluoride were mainly concentrated in the southeast of the area, which was mainly affected by the superposition of natural factors and industrial park sewage discharge. Through human health risk assessment and spatial distribution of fluoride in regional groundwater, it can provide a theoretical basis for regional groundwater pollution prevention.

scholarly journals Concentrations, spatial distribution, and human health risk assessment of asbestos fibers in ambient air of Tehran, Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Kermani ◽  
Ahmad Jonidi Jafari ◽  
Mitra Gholami ◽  
Farhad Taghizadeh ◽  
Hossein Arfaeinia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Human Health Risk ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Human Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Asbestos Fibers
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