Influence of open cast mining on radiological health risk of agricultural soils around Adudu lead–zinc mine, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Various fields of science have focused on the level of natural radionuclides in the environment since they are responsible for terrestrial background radiation exposure to members of the public. Gamma ray spectrometry with high purity germanium (HPGe) detector was used to measure the activity concentrations of natural radionuclides {²³⁸U (²²⁶Ra), ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K} in one hundred and ten (110) composite soil samples collected from eleven (11) studied sites around lead (Pb)–zinc (Zn) mine. Result showed that the mean activities of ²³⁸U (²²⁶Ra), ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in the investigated soils varied between 28.49 ± 2.93–72.95 ± 7.07, 33.97 ± 4.09–105.78 ± 9.91 and 27.37 ± 1.87–853.16 ± 45.95 Bq/kg respectively. The activity concentrations of the analyzed natural radionuclides and their evaluated radiological health hazard parameters for soils around the mine, were above global average values and higher than those of control soil. The levels of ²³⁸U (²²⁶Ra), ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K and the values of assessed radiological health hazard parameters for the control soil, were all lower than the global average values. This research showed that open cast mining of Pb–Zn in Adudu significantly increased the radiological health risk posed to the mine workers and community dwellers.

Keywords:

• Lead–zinc mining
• excess life cancer risk
• radiological hazards
• natural radionuclides
• soil pollution
• HPGe detector

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Staff of National Institute of Radiation Protection Research (NIRPR), Ibadan; especially Mrs. Owoade, L. R; for carrying out radioactive analysis of the soil samples. Also, Mr Ombugadu Akwashiki is appreciated for taking the GPS coordinates of sampling sites.

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Conflict of interest/competing interests

The Authors declared no conflict of interest.

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Authors received no funding