Abstract

The aim of this present study was to assess natural radioactivity levels in selected groundwater (boreholes and wells) used as domestic purposes in particular and drinking as well in some communities in Adentan and Abokobi areas in Greater Accra region of Ghana. This was achieved by first measuring the activity concentration of $^{222}Rn, ^{40}K$ and $^{232}Th$ in groundwater samples using High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector. These concentrations of $^{40}K, ^{222}Rn$ and $^{232}Th$ were used with their ingested dose conversion factors to estimate annual effective dose for Adult members of public due to consumption of the groundwater. The estimated average annual effective dose due to consumption of $^{40}K, ^{222}Rn$ and $^{232}Th$ in the water samples from Adentan and Abokobi were 113.007±3.940 and 76.568±2.321 μSv/y, respectively. These were compared with the estimated average annual dose due to ingestion of nuclides in water by the WHO (100 μSv/y) and the estimated average dose due to ingestion of radionuclides in food and water (290 μSv/y) by UNSCEAR (2000). They are found within the range even though Adentan value is slightly higher than the WHO average value. The results show that consumption of groundwater may not pose any radiological health hazard to the public.

Keywords:

Annual effective dose, groundwater, radionuclides activity concentration,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.