en Radiation Biology Radiation Biology تحقيق بديع Original Research <span style="font-weight: bold">Background: </span>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. <span style="font-weight: bold">Materials and Methods:</span> 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. <span style="font-weight: bold">Results:</span> 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. <span style="font-weight: bold">Conclusion:</span> 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. <span style="font-weight: bold">Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2012 10(1): 31-36 </span> High background radiation area, uranium, drinking water, fission track registration technique 31 36 http://ijrr.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-417&slc_lang=en&sid=1 S. Ben Byju 790031947532846002681 790031947532846002681 No A. Sunil 790031947532846002682 790031947532846002682 No M.J. Reeba 790031947532846002683 790031947532846002683 No E.P. Christa 790031947532846002684 790031947532846002684 No V.K. Vaidyan 790031947532846002685 790031947532846002685 No R. Prasad 790031947532846002686 790031947532846002686 No P.J. Jojo jojo@jojopanakal.com 790031947532846002687 790031947532846002687 Yes