Radon concentration measurement and effective dose assessment in different brands of commercial bottled water produced in China

Abstract

Radon and its progeny often exist in daily drinking water, and may pose a potential health threat to the public. In this study, the radon concentrations of 15 different brands of bottled drinking water and their radiological hazards were measured and evaluated. The results indicate that the concentration range of radon in water is 13.3 ± 4.7 to 300.0 ± 21.6 mBq/L, and is lower than the limit level (11.11 Bq/L). The results compared with radon concentrations from other countries or regions show that the radon concentrations in this study are almost within the range of those of all the others. The average annual effective dose for infants, children and adults in the three age-groups is 0.657, 0.535 and 0.665 μSv/y respectively, which is lower than the recommended level of 0.1 mSv/y. The results also show that the bottled water does not pose a major health hazard to the public. Moreover, combined with statistical analysis, it is concluded that the concentration of total dissolved solids (TDS) and Ca2þ in bottled mineral water has a strong correlation with the radon concentration in the water.