Natural Radioactivity Measurements in Soils of Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur Districts of Punjab, India

Soil acts as a source of continuous radiation exposure to human and as a medium of migration for transfer of radionuclides to the biological systems hence causes the radiological contamination in the environment. So, it is necessary to study the natural radioactivity in soil to assess the dose due to terrestrial gamma radiation levels in order to know the health risks. The Primordial Radioactivity (U, Th, and K) contents in soil were determined in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab, India, using high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometric analysis. The concentration of natural radionuclides viz., U, Th and K, in the soil varies from 6.37±0.13 to 56.71±0.76 Bq kg, 24.03±0.95 to 334.47±6.96 Bq kg and 738.71±8.58 to 1064.97±11.46 Bq kg respectively. The total absorbed dose rate calculated from activity concentration of U , Th and K ranged from 48.49 to 261.84 nGy h. The radium equivalent (Req) activity and the external hazard index (Hex), vary from 92.44 to 573.19 Bq kgand from 0.26 to 1.57 respectively. The radium equivalent activities in all the soil samples were lower than the limit (370 Bq kg) set in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report and the dose equivalent was within the safe limit of 1 mSv y.