Assessment of Indoor and Outdoor Background Radiation Levels in Plateau State University Bokkos Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Survey taken by the world health organization (WHO) and the international commission on radiation protection (ICRP) shows that residents of temperate climate spends only about 20% of their time outdoor and about 80% indoors and certain materials use for the construction of such buildings (rocks soils) are known to be radioactive. This work set out to assess the background ionizing radiations at Biochemistry, Chemistry, Microbiology and physics laboratories all of Plateau State University Bokkos to determine the radiation levels both within the laboratories and their immediate surroundings. The gamma-scout used for the purpose of the study was adjusted to detect the alpha, beta and gamma types of radiation in ?Sv/hr. The mean equivalent dose rate per hour for indoor background radiation for the laboratories was found to be 0.256?Sv/hr while the outdoor was 0.249?Sv/hr. The mean annual equivalent dose rate of the laboratories were compute for indoor and outdoor background radiation level to be 1.54mSv/yr and 0.44mSv/yr respectively, and are in a good proportion below the world wide average dose of 2.4mSv/yr.

Keywords: Cancer,equivalent, dose rate, gamma-scout, background ionizing radiation.