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Background: The South-west coast of India is known to have very high levels of natural background radiation due to the monazite beach sand. Uranium is the heaviest trace element found in all terrestrial substances at varying levels with chemical and radio toxicities. It supports several short-lived radioisotopes in its decay series including radium. Uranium in drinking water is important in terms of the ingestion dose. Materials and Methods: The present study reports the results of uranium analysis of 346 drinking water samples from the three costal districts of Kerala using fission track registration technique. Results: Results obtained show that uranium concentrations vary from 0.31 μg/l to 4.92 μg/l equivalent to the specific activity of 3.9 Bq/m3 and 62 Bq/m³, respectively. Conclusion: The estimated daily intake of uranium through drinking water is lower than the recommended limits. The distribution of uranium in water bodies shows a heterogeneous nature of distribution. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2012 10(1): 31-36

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Background: Natural background radiation of a particular region is one of the distinctive factors defining the status of environment. Eloor Island is an industrial area in Ernakulum District of the state of Kerala, India. The indoor and outdoor gamma level measurements have been carried out for the region for evaluating the annual effective dose to the population residing in this area. Materials and Methods:  Measurements of indoor gamma dose were done for a whole year using Thermo Luminescent Dosimeters (TLDs) and GM tube based survey meters in forty five selected locations. The activity concentration of ²³²Th, ²³⁸U and ⁴⁰K in the samples were analyzed using gamma spectrometry. The outdoor external gamma ray dose rates were evaluated from the activity concentration of ⁴⁰K, ²³⁸U and ²³²Th in the soil samples collected from the study area. Results: The average indoor gamma dose measured using TLDs were found to be 1219 µGy y^-1.  The measured activity in the soil samples had range from 92.5 Bq kg^-1 to 792.8 Bq kg^-1 for ²³²Th, 9.2 Bq kg^-1 to 114.6 Bq kg^-1 for ²³⁸U and 265.9 Bq kg^-1 to 851.9 Bq kg^-1 for ⁴⁰K. From the observed mean dose levels, the annual effective dose equivalent to population residing in the island has been estimated and is found to be 0.68 mSv y^-1 for indoors and 0.32 mSv y^-1 for outdoors. Conclusion: The annual effective dose equivalent to population estimated for indoor is found to be higher as compared to the global average the same for outdoor was found to be less when compared with the natural background gamma level reported by UNSCEAR for normal background areas

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