Evaluation of radiation hazards and risk assessment in agricultural soil and commonly consumed vegetables in the district of Klang, Malaysia

• Main Authors: Muthu, Hariandra, Kasi, Ramesh, Subramaniam, Ramesh T., Bashir, Shahid
• Format: Article
• Published: VINCA INST NUCLEAR SCI 2022
• Subjects: TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/46276/; https://doi.org/10.2298/NTRP2202145M

Commonly consumed vegetables and their surrounding soil samples are gathered from a farm located in Klang, Selangor. Gamma spectrometry has been utilized to analyze the activity concentration of the natural radionuclides, Ra-226, Th-232, and K-40 in nine vegetables and soil samples collected. These data are used to evaluate the hazard indices in the soil samples and their radiological exposure to humans. It is found that the external hazard index Hex ranged from 0.05 to 0.44 with a mean value of 0.14. The internal hazard index H-in of the soil samples ranged from 0.05 to 0.56 with a mean value of 0.17. Both Hex and Hin average values are lower than the limit established by the European Commission for Radiation Protection. The absorbed dose rate D-N, The annual ingestion dose A(eff), annual effective dose equivalent AEDE, and excess life-time cancer risk, are used to learn the potential risk on the general public consuming these vegetables. For the vegetable sample, it is found that the average value for the DN is 6.70 nGyh(-1) and ranged between 1.75 to 16.94 nGyh(-1). The average value of A(eff) is 10.17 mu Sv, and it ranges from 2.54 mu Sv to 22.89 mu Sv. The range of AEDE is between 2.15 mu Sv and 20.78 mu S, with an average value of 8.21 mu Sv. Excess life-time cancer risk ELCR is used to determine the likelihood of cancer development due to the radiological exposure of consuming these vegetables. It is found that the average value of ELCR is 2.87 x10(-5), and the range is from 0.75x10-5 to 7.27x10-5. Both the A(eff) and AEDE are found to be lower than the average world value recommended by UNSCEAR.