Nature Environment and Pollution Technology

Emmanuel Gbenga Olumayede ¹, Kehinde O. Sodeinde ¹, Christopher O. Akintade ¹, Bamidele Odunayo Emmanuel ², Ayodele Akintoye ³, Olabode Oladunjoye Peter ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Industrial Chemistry, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, NG
2 Department of Geophysics, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, NG
3 Physics Unit, Department of Science Laboratory, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, NG

Abstract

This study sets out to verify the hypothesis that size aggregate of quarry rock particles affects the radiation doses. Samples of freshly and previously crushed finished stone dust of different aggregate size were collected in the factory and airborne dusts were collected around quarry facility during October, 2014 to September, 2015. The activity concentrations of ⁴⁰K, ²³⁸U, and ²³²Th in samples were determined by gamma ray spectrometry. The average mean activity concentrations in fresh samples for ²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K were 35.56±5.67, 42.41±5.66 and 1164.17±16.33 Bq/kg respectively. Meanwhile, those of previous samples were 29.93±6.09, 44.87±5.73 and 1087.94±15.87 Bq/kg for ²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K respectively. The radium equivalent values for the stone dust samples in this work are higher than the accepted safe limit of 370 Bq/kg . The committed effective dose via inhalation of dust ranged from 0.450 to 0.471 μSv. It was concluded that prolong inhalation of dust in the area could pose health risk to individual.

Keywords

Aggregates of Stone Quarry, Airborne Particles, Radioactivity, Dose Assessment.

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