Background: The exposure of human being to
ionize radiation from natural sources is a continuing,
inescapable feature of life on earth. Direct measurement
of absorbed dose rates in air has been carried
out in many countries of the world during the last few
decades. Such investigations can be useful for
assessment of public dose rates, the performance of
epidemiological studies, and keeping reference-data
records to ascertain possible changes in the environmental
radioactivity duo to nuclear, industrial, and
other human activities. Materials and Methods: The
measurements of the outdoor and indoor- environmental
exposures including cosmic and terrestrial
components were accomplished by a portable Geiger
Muller detector (RDS -110). The measurements were
made during daylight from September to October
2009, in five areas within nine big cities of Lorestan
province. In each area, one building was randomly
selected for indoor and outdoor measurements.
Measurements were made for each region and an
average value was used to calculate the exposure
rate from gamma background radiation. Results: The
results showed the Maximum and minimum outdoor
dose rates as 166±44 and 65±8 nSvh-1 in Borujerd
and Pol-e- dokhtar, respectively. The average of outdoor
dose rates was determined 113±26 nSvh-1.
Also the maximum and minimum values of indoor
dose were 157±52 and 74±14 nSvh-1 in Borujerd and
Pol-e-dokhtar, respectively. The average indoor dose
rates were determined as 119±27 nSvh-1.
Conclusion: The average annual effective dose for
gamma background radiation in Lorestan province
has been 0.72 mSv, with the range of 0.3– 0.6 mSv
which was more than the global value (0.48 mSv). A
poor correlation coefficient between was observed
altitude and absorbed dose rates. Iran. J. Radiat. Res.,
2011 9(2): 89-93
Gholami M, Mirzaei S, Jomehzadeh A. Gamma background radiation measurement in Lorestan province, Iran. Int J Radiat Res 2011; 9 (2) :89-93 URL: http://ijrr.com/article-1-740-en.html