Exposure to radiation from the natural radioactivity in Tunisian building materials

Abstract

Building materials can expose public and workers to radiation because of their content of radium, thorium and potassium isotopes. This is why it is very important from the radiological point of view to survey the natural radioactivity content of commonly used building materials in any country. This work consists of the measurement of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activity concentrations in a variety of commonly used building materials in Tunisia and on the estimation of their radiological hazard. The maximum value of radium equivalent for the studied materials was equal to 169 Bq kg. -1 and corresponds to the clay brick, which is lower than the recommended value of 370 Bq kg. -1. In this work, several radiological indexes were calculated and were found to be under their highest permitted limit. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.