Vikas Duggal, Asha Rani and Rohit Mehra
The environmental monitoring of radon in different dwellings of Northern Rajasthan has been carried out. This study has been undertaken for the purpose of health risk assessments. RAD7 an electronic radon detector (Durridge co. USA) was used to estimate the indoor radon concentration levels in dwellings of Northern Rajasthan. The indoor radon activity in dwellings varies from 8.75 to 157.50 Bq/m3 with an average of 32.31 Bq/m3. The observed radon concentration values were well below the action level (200-300 Bq/m3) recommended by International Commission on Radiological Protection. The indoor radon concentrations in majority of the houses surveyed in the present study are within the safe limit (148 Bq/m3) recommended by US Environmental Protection Agency. The ventilation conditions are found to affect radon concentration in dwellings. Analysis of ventilation conditions reveal that the indoor radon concentration values are more in poorly ventilated dwellings compared with the well-ventilated ones.
