One of the most important characterizations of social health is existence the availability of safe drinking water. Since one of the sources of water contamination is nuclear contamination from radon gas, so in this research radon 222 concentration levels in water supplies in the Toyserkan (a region located in the west of Iran) is investigated. For measuring radon gas in water wells and springs Lucas chamber method is used. Review the results of these measurements that taken from 15th place show that, only five sites have radon concentrations above the limit dose. To reduce radon concentration, it is better to keep water in open pools in contact with air before the water is delivered to users.
Once radon in water supplies reaches customers, it may produce human exposure via inhalation and direct digestion. Radon in water transfers into the air during showers, flushing toilets, washing dishes and washing clothes. The aerosols tend to deposit into the lungs where they release radiation that has been shown to increase the likelihood of lung cancer. Radon can also reach other body tissues through ingestion resulting in radiation exposure to the internal organs. Ingestion of radon is believed to increase the risk of stomach cancer. [7,8].
As stated one kinds of water contamination is due the existence of radon and this is very important in the quality of drinking water. It is remarkable that if the amount of radon in water is reduced only 40 to 50 percent before is delivered to users, it causes that the respiratory and gastrointestinal cancers reduced about 30 to 35 percent and in long term is very important for decreasing remedial cost. Considering the high rate of lung cancer in this region we had to investigate the amount of radon gas concentration in the water resources. The high rate of lung cancer in this region is our motivation to investigate the amount of radon gas concentration in the water resources.
The concentration of radon in underground water is more than of spring waters and also deep wells, however if the water is moving more and more the concentration of radon is expected to be further reduced. The investigated water samples are prepared with the outlet source from the lowest level of water depth with in 25 cm of surface water in the reverse pressure conditions. By keeping the samples in a cold place and at the least time the samples have been transported to laboratory. The samples were taken from 15 places that supply the drinking water and three samples of 330 ml have been taken from each site.
In this research to determine the concentration of radon in water the PRASSI (Portable Radon Gas Surveyor SILENA) system model 5S has been used. This system has suitable features to measure the concentration of radon gas in the water and weather. The most important characteristics of this system is the high sensitivity and short time response. The detection system has used the scintillation cell coated with Zn S(Ag) with 1830 I˭ % volume. This technique is one of the oldest and most reliable procedures for the measurement of radon. PRASSI pumping cycle operate at a constant rate with 3 litters per minute. In figure 1 the schematic of measuring PRASSI system is shown.
In this research, radon concentrations in water samples from 15 region of Tuyserkan is measured. The radon and radium concentration in each sample versus {˫˔JÈ˭ % ) and the annual effective dose of stomach, lung and whole body in terms of (mSv / year) have shown in table 1. In Figure 2 and 3 the histogram of radon and radium concentration of each sample are shown respectively. The results show that the amount of radon in five sites is more than 10{˫˔JÈ˭ % ). The annual effective dose for stomach and lung are calculated by using the results of Tayyeb et.al.[9].
Considering that about 50% of natural exposure of people is from radon gas and it is the leading cause of cancer patients suffering respiratory and gastrointestinal systems, and the highest percentage of radon that enter the human body is from drinking water and breathing, especially when is bathing, the measuring of radon gas in underground water in this region is done. The results of this research shows that radon gas concentration in five samples of water used by people have much more than the limit determined by the Environmental Protection Agency America {ŵŴ { , but it is not very high and the amount of radon exist in water is not a serious hazard risk threaten the region. So for more attention to public health community and reducing the risks of radon gas, it is recommended that the drinking water must be kept in the open pools, or at least moved as a cascade to moving out radon gas.
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