Soil gas radon, indoor radon and its diurnal variation in the northern region of Cameroon

ABSTRACT

Soil gas radon and indoor radon measurements have been carried out in Mayo-Louti and Benoué Divisions in northern Cameroon. Concentrations of radon in soil have been measured using Markus 10 at the depth of about 1 m. Radon concentration in soil varies from 0.9 to 13.8 kBq m⁻³ with a mean value of 4.6 kBq m⁻³. Average daily indoor radon concentrations measured with RadonEye+² detectors vary from 7 to 60 Bq m⁻³ with an average of 17 Bq m⁻³. Indoor radon concentrations measured with passive RADTRAK detectors range between 15 and 104 Bq m⁻³ with a geometric value of 38 Bq m⁻³ and a geometric standard deviation of 1.5. This geometric value is lower than the value of 30 Bq m^–3 given by UNSCEAR. Indoor radon inhalation dose ranges between 0.28 and 1.97 mSv a⁻¹ with geometric value of 0.72 mSv a⁻¹ (at 0.03 standard deviation). Outdoor radon inhalation ranges between 0.02 and 0.26 mSv a⁻¹ with a mean value of 0.09 mSv a⁻¹. The total annual effective dose due to indoor and outdoor radon exposure for this study area is 0.81 mSv a⁻¹, less than 1.15 mSv a⁻¹ the world average value given by UNSCEAR. There is no significant radiological risk for the inhabitants.

KEYWORDS:

• Cameroon
• effective dose
• indoor radon
• inhalation dose
• Markus 10
• radio ecology
• radon variability
• RadonEye+²
• RADTRAK
• soil gas radon

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA ) within the framework of the Technical Cooperation (TC) Project [CMR9009] titled ‘Establishing a national radon plan for controlling public exposure due to radon indoors’ and by the Government of Cameroon through the Public Investment Budget [BIP 2020] of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation, Cameroon Innovation.