Natural radioactivity and radiological risk assessment due to building materials commonly used in Erbil city, Kurdistan region, Iraq

Assessment of 222Rn, 226Ra, 238U, 218Po, and 214Po activity concentrations in the blood samples of workers at selected building material factories in Erbil City

The objective of this research is to assess the impact of radon concentration on workers at certain construction material industries in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The CR-39 solid-state track detector was used in this experiment to monitor radon levels and their daughters. For this purpose, as a case study group, 70 workers were divided into seven subgroups (gypsum, cement plant, lightweight block, marble, red brick 1, crusher stone, and concrete block 2), and 20 healthy volunteers were selected as a control group. The findings demonstrate that the mean concentrations of radon, radium, uranium, and radon daughters deposited on the detector face (POS) and chamber walls (POW) for the case study group were 9.61 ± 1.52 Bq/m³, 0.33 ± 0.05 Bq/Kg, 5.39 ± 0.86 mBq/Kg, 4 ± 0.63, and 16.62 ± 2.64 mBq/m³, whereas for the control group, they were 3.39 ± 0.58 Bq/m³, 0.117 ± 0.03 Bq/Kg, 1.91 ± 0.32 mBq/Kg, 1.41 ± 0.24, and 5.88 ± 1 mBq/m³, respectively. The statistical analysis revealed that radon, radium, uranium, and POW and POS concentrations were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.001) in the samples for the case study groups of cement, lightweight block, red brick 1, marble, and crusher stone factories in comparison to the control group; however, the results for gypsum and concrete block 2 factories were not statistically significant in comparison to the control group. Intriguingly, the radon levels in every blood sample examined were far lower than the 200 Bq/m³ limit established by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Hence, it may be argued that the blood is devoid of contaminants. These results are crucial for determining whether or not an individual is exposed to substantial quantities of radiation and for demonstrating a link between radon, its daughter, uranium, and the prevalence of cancer among workers in the Kurdish region of Iraq.