ABSTRACT
This study presents the intercomparison of the outdoor environmental gamma dose rates measured using a NaI (Tl) based survey meter along with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) and estimation of excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR), for the inhabitants of Poonch division of the Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. CaF2: Dy (TLD-200) card dosimeters were installed at height of 1 m from ground at fifteen different locations covering the entire Poonch division comprising of three districts. During three distinct two month time periods within the six month study period, all the installed dosimeters were exposed to outdoor environmental gamma radiations, retrieved and read out at Radiation Dosimetry Laboratory, Health Physics Division, PINSTECH laboratory, Islamabad. The ambient outdoor gamma dose rate measurements were also taken with NaI (Tl) based portable radiometric instrument at 1 m above the ground. To estimate the annual gamma doses, NaI (Tl) based survey data were used for one complete year following the deployment of the dosimeters. The mean annual gamma dose rates measured by TLDs and survey meter were found as 1.47±0.10 and 0.862±0.003 mGy/y respectively. Taking into account a 29% outdoor occupancy factor, the annual average effective dose rate for individuals was estimated as 0.298±0.04 and 0.175±0.03 mSv/y by TLDs and survey meter, respectively. For outdoor exposure, the ELCR was calculated from the TLD and survey meter measurements. The environmental outdoor average annual effective dose obtained in present study are less than the estimated world average terrestrial and cosmic gamma ray dose rate of 0.9 mSv/y reported in UNSCEAR 2000. The possible origins of gamma doses in the area and incompatibilities of results obtained from the two different measurement techniques are also discussed.
Subject(s)
Humans , Gamma Rays , Neoplasms , Pakistan , Radiation MonitoringABSTRACT
An intercomparison exercise for personal dosimetry service providers within Pakistan was conducted by the Health Physics Division of the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology. Participation in the exercise was on voluntary basis. The exercise was carried out to harmonize individual dose monitoring techniques for high energy photons in terms of a new operational quantity, namely personal dose equivalent Hp(10), for personal dosimetry in accordance with the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements. Each laboratory submitted 25 dosimeters for participation in the intercomparison exercise. Protection level Co and Cs sources were used for irradiation of dosimeters on a water phantom according to International Atomic Energy Agency protocol at the Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory. Hp(10) doses for five different dose levels were measured by the participating laboratories. The ratios of measured dose/true dose (Hm/Ht) remained in the range of 0.66 to 1.11 for the Co source and 0.84 to 1.17 for the Cs source. Performance of service providers' laboratories to measure Hp(10) doses was analyzed and evaluated in terms of trumpet curves plotted for photons at a 95% confidence level.
