Assessment of Radioactivity Contents and Associated Risks in Some Soil Used for Agriculture and Building Materials in Cameroon英文文献资料.docVIP

Journal of Environmental Protection, 2012, 3, 1571-1578 /10.4236/jep.2012.311173 Published Online November 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep) Assessment of Radioactivity Contents and Associated Risks in Some Soil Used for Agriculture and Building Materials in Cameroon Pascal Tchokossa , Thomas B. Makon , Robert Martin Nemba 1* 2 2 1 2 Department of Physics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Laboratory of Theoretical and Physical Chemistry, De- partment of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroon. * Email: ptchokos@ Received August 17 , 2012; revised September 12 , 2012; accepted October 11 , 2012 th th th ABSTRACT A survey of radioactivity content and associated radiological risks was carried out in various soils used for agriculture and building materials in Cameroon by means of a well-calibrated high-purity germanium detector. Soil samples were collected directly from the agricultural farms and the brick’s factories, air-dried at room temperature to a constant mass, crushed, sieved and sealed for at least one month before analysis. The specific activity of U ranged from 5.36 ± 0.39 238 to 51.28 ± 9.67 Bq·kg?1 with an average of 34.52 ± 7.18 Bq·kg?1 Th from 4.03 ± 1.03 to 24.74 ± 3.10 Bq·kg?1 ; 232 with an average of 16.67 ± 4.28 Bq·kg?1 K ranged from 16.18 ± 3.11 to 467.40 ± 50.80 Bq·kg?1 with an average of 186.96 ± ; 40 16.21 Bq·kg?1; while that of the fallout 137Cs ranged from 0.00 to 4.79 ± 1.75 Bq·kg?1 with an average of 2.32 ± 0.99 Bq kg?1; The mean result obtained for the Representative levels index (I?), the radium equivalent (Raeq), the total ab- sorbed dose rate (ADR), the external hazard inde