Abstract

This study dealt with measuring the concentrations of radioactive radon gas emitted from (35) water samples taken from selected areas of the marshes of Basra Governorate – southern Iraq, to determine the concentrations of the radon gas 222Rn emitted from the selected and newborn samples of the radioactive element Radium 226R resulting from the decay of isotope uranium 238U in (July) 2020. Fast electronic technology has been adopted by the RAD7 device. The results showed that the highest concentration of radon gas in water was 15.531 ± 1.067Bq. L-1 in the sample from am alsanadiq of funds in the marshes of Basra city, and the lowest concentration rate was 0.034±0.002 Bq. L-1 in a water sample from Qurna among the studied samples. The effective annual dose of water was calculated at the highest concentration rate and found to be 0.843mSv.y-1 and this value is higher than the internationally recommended limits by specialized international organizations of 0.1 mSv.y-1. In general, it was found that the radon gas concentrations in some of the water samples selected from the marshes of Basra Governorate–southern Iraq within the study were higher than the permissible values of 11.1 Bq. L-1 according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and that they may pose a risk to the health of the population in those areas in If no necessary action is taken.

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The article was added to IASJ on 2021-03-05

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