Assessing radiation hazards associated with natural radioactivity in building materials in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

This study is aimed at assessing radiation hazards associated with natural radioactivity in common building materials used Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Thirty-six samples from eighteen types of were collected to measure activity concentrations using the gross alpha/beta counting system and gamma-ray spectrometry. The alpha beta ranged 94.7 ? 31.3 1045.1 112.3 Bqkg-1 104.9 4.7 834.4 37.1 Bqkg-1, respectively. In addition, 226Ra, 232Th, 40K also determined, which 4.1 0.1 53.5 0.4 5.7 83.6 0.8 14.9 664.9 10.6 indices including radium equivalent activity, external internal hazard, gamma indices, utilization index, annual effective dose, calculated evaluate radiological radioactivity. results showed that these below recommended safety limits for most investigated except six brick samples, whose indexes are slightly higher than limit. Even so, all doses found be world average.