Indoor Radon Concentration in Some Schools in Kaya, Burkina Faso

Bambara Telado Luc^{1, 2,} , Derra Moumouni^{3, 2}, Kaboré Karim^{4, 2}, Ousmane Ibrahim Cissé² and François Zougmoré²

¹Institut des Sciences et de Technologie, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Burkina Faso

²Laboratoire de matériaux et Environnement, UFR- Sciences Exactes et Appliquées Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkina Faso

³Physics Department, Université Norbert Zongo, Koudougou, Burkina Faso

⁴Université Virtuelle du Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Cite this paper:
Bambara Telado Luc, Derra Moumouni, Kaboré Karim, Ousmane Ibrahim Cissé and François Zougmoré. Indoor Radon Concentration in Some Schools in Kaya, Burkina Faso. Physics and Materials Chemistry. 2023; 9(1):8-13. doi: 10.12691/pmc-9-1-2

Abstract

The determination of indoor radon concentrations in residential buildings, schools and workplaces is an important public health concern. The purpose of this research was to measure the concentration of radon gas in the school in the city of Kaya and to evaluate the effective dose in the lungs and the risk of cancer. This study used Corentium's AIR THINGS digital radon detector to determine the radon concentration in sixteen (16) schools. The digital radon detector air Things of Corentium was placed in each office for a minimum period of one week and the concentration values were recorded every 24 hours. The values recorded in each school were the short-term average and the long-term average during seven days of measurement. The highest short-term average concentration was 82.11 Bq/m3, and was calculated in School 10 (Lycée Provincial Moussa Kargougou). The maximum radon concentration value measured in the short term in school 10 was 298 Bq/m3. The maximum long-term radon concentration value measured in the school 10 was 63.00 Bq/m3 and below the limit of 100 Bq/m3 recommended by the WHO. The average concentration of radon gas in schools in the city of Kaya was 11.19 ± 5.97 Bq/m3. This concentration was well below the limit recommended by the WHO.

Keywords:
radon concentration school absorbed dose effective dose

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	WHO, 2009. WHO handbook on Indoor radon – A public health perspective. World Health Organization, Switzerland.
[2]	Tracy, B. L., Krewski, D., Chen, J., Ziekinski, J. M., Brand, K. P., Meyerhof, D. 2006. Assessment and management of residential radon health risks: A report from the Health Canada Radon Workshop. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health A 69: 735–758.
[3]	Sousa S.I.V., P.T.B.S. Branco, R.A.O. Nunes, M.C.M. Alvim-Ferraz, F.G. Martins, 2015. “Radon Levels in Nurseries and Primary Schools in Bragança district – Preliminary Assessment”, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - Part A: Current Issues, 78, 805-813, 2015.
[4]	USEPA, 2010. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/radon, accessed in March 2014.
[5]	Zielinski, J. M., Carr, Z., Krewski, D., Repacholi, M. 2006. World Health Organization’s international radon project. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health A 69: 759–769.
[6]	Loffredo Filomena, Irene Opoku-Ntim , Giovanni Meo and Maria Quarto, Indoor Radon Monitoring in Kindergarten and Primary Schoolsin South Italy. Atmosphere 2022, 13, 478.
[7]	Ivanova Kremena, Nina Chobanova, Bistra Kunovska, Jana Djounova, Zdenka Stojanovska, 2022. Exposure Due to Indoor Radon in Bulgarian Schools. Aerosol and Air Quality Research | , DATA REPORT.
[8]	Clouvas, A., Xanthos, S., Takoudis, G. (2011). Indoor radon levels in Greek Schools. J. Environ. Radioact. 102, 881–885.
[9]	Labidi S., D. Al-Azmi, H. Mahjoubi, R. Ben Salah, 2010. Radon in elementary schools in Tunisia. RADIOPROTECTION– VOL. 45 – N° 2 (2010), pages 209 to 217.
[10]	Bambara Telado Luc. Kabore Karim. Derra Moumouni. Beogo Cedric. Ousmane Ibrahim Cisse. Francois Zougmore. 2021. «Assessment of Indoor Radon Concentration in Residential Buildings at Ouagadougou and Estimation of the Annual Effective Dose». RadiationScience and Technology.Publ. June 15 2021. Vol. 7. no No. 2. p. 41-46. 2021.
[11]	Bambara Telado Luc, Doumounia Ali, Kohio Nièssan, Ouédraogo Soumaila and François Zougmoré, 2022. Radon level in Burkina Faso student residence and estimation of the annual effective dose. Asian Journal of Scientific Research, 15: 31-38.
[12]	UNSCEAR 2000 Report to the General Assembly. with Scientific Annexes.«SOURCES AND EFFECTS OF IONIZING RADIATION». VOLUME I. ANNEXE B. UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION. New York. Sales No. E.00.IX.3. ISBN 92-1-142238-8 x .2000.
[13]	Norafatin Khalid, Amran Ab. Majid, Redzuwan Yahaya, et al., «Radiological risk of building materials using homemade airtight radon chamber», Cite AIP Conf. Proc. 1584 207 2014, févr. 2015, [En ligne].
[14]	Hüseyin Ali YALIM. Ayla GÜMÜŞ. Rıdvan ÜNAL. 2018. Determination of Indoor Radon Concentration and Effective Dose Equivalent at Workplaces of Afyonkarahisar Province. Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi Fen Dergisi Süleyman Demirel University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Science 2018. 13 (2): 29-35.
[15]	Hashim Abdalsattar Kareem and Sara Salih Nayi, 2019. Assessment of Internal Exposure to Radon in Schools in Karbala, Iraq. Journal of Radiation and Nuclear Applications, J. Rad. Nucl. Appl. 4, No. 1, 25-34 (2019).
[16]	Akeel T. Al-Kazwini. Mohannad M. Al-Arnaout. and Tiba R. Abdulkareem. 2020. Radon-222 Exposure and Dose Concentration Levels in Jordanian Dwellings. Hindawi Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2020. Article ID 6668488. 7 pages.
[17]	Yarahmadi Maryam. Abbas Shahsavani. Mohammad Hassan Mahmoudian. Narges Shamsedini. Noushin Rastkari. Majid Kermani. 2016. Estimation of the residential radon levels and the annual effective dose in dwellings of Shiraz. Iran. in 2015. Electronic Physician (ISSN: 2008-5842). June 2016. Volume: 8. Issue: 6. Pages: 2497-2505.
[18]	Mirsina Mousavi Aghdam. Stefania DaPelo. Valentina Dentoni. Viviana Fanti. Alessandra Bernardini. Paolo Randaccio. Daniele Chiriu. 2019. Measurements of Indoor Radon Levels and Gamma Dose Rates. Proceedings of the 5th World Congress on New Technologies (NewTech'19) Lisbon. Portugal – August. 2019 Paper No. ICEPR 149.
[19]	International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) (1991) 1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. ICRP Publication 60.
[20]	Amin S. A.. S. D. Alalgawi and H. M. Hashimn. 2015.Indoor radon concentrations and effective dose estimation in AlKarkh side of Baghdad dwellings. IJST (2015) 39A4: 491- 495. Iranian Journal of Science & Technology .
[21]	Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). 2011. Radon and Health. Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada 2011 Catalogue number CC172-67/2011 PDF ISBN 978-1-100- 17765-6 Published by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) Catalogue number: INFO-0813.
[22]	Ademola Augustin Kolapo, Oluwasayo Peter Abodunrin, Moronfolu O. Olaoye, Mariam A. Oladapo and Isreal Ayo, 2015.Measurement of indoor radon in a university environment in Nigeria using Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (CR-39), Nuclear and Radiation Physics, Elixir Nuclear & Radiation Phys. 81 (2015) 31911-31914, Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal).Oke-Ogun region, Nigeria. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 102:1012-1017, 2011.
[23]	Obed, R.I, Ademola, A.K, Vascotto, M and Giannini, G., Radon measurements by nuclear track detectors in secondary schools in Oke-Ogun region, Nigeria. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, , November 2011, Pages 1012-1017.
[24]	Al Zabadi H., K. Mallah, G. Saffarini, 2015. Indoor exposure assessment of radon in the elementary schools, Palestine. Volume 13, No 3, International Journal of Radiation Research, July 2015, Int. J. Radiat. Res., July 2015; 13(3): 221-228.
[25]	Kadhim Abdul Amir, Ahmed Mesehour Ali, and Ali Abid Abojassim, 2020. Measuring of Airborne Radon concentration inside some Schools of Al-Samawa City, Iraq. AIP Conference Proceedings 2290, 050003 (2020).
[26]	Maged, A. F., 2005. Radon concentrations in elementary schools in Kuwait. Health Phys. 90, 258e262, 2006.Italy 100
[27]	Giovani, C., Cappelletto, C., Garavaglia, M., Villalta, R., Radon concentration survey in schools of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, north east Italy. In: Proceedings of Seventh International Symposium "Natural Radiation Environment (NRE VII). Rodi (GR), pp. 20e24, pp. 985e996, 2002.
[28]	Hernández, F., Gonzalez-Manrique, S., Karlsson, L., Hernández-Armas, J., Aparicio, A., Counting radon tracks in Makrofol detectors with the "image reduction and analysis facility" (IRAF) software package. Radiat. Meas. 42, 496e504, 2007.