Assessment of radon (Rn-222) activity and associated doses to estimate ELCR and LLC in groundwater in Ranchi district, Jharkhand, India

The present study deals with an overview of the distribution of radon (Rn-222) concentration in the groundwater and its associated annual effective doses in Ranchi district, Jharkhand, India. The samples were collected from deep tube-wells and the Rn-222 concentration was measured in the collected samples using an ionization chamber type radon monitor AlphaGUARD. The measured Rn-222 activities in few groundwater samples are found beyond 100 Bq/L. The total annual effective dose (AED) has been estimated for three different age groups (adults, children and infants); and the result shows that the total AED of 72.17% samples for infant, 93.04% samples for children and 99.13% samples for adults are above 0.1 mSv/y. Additionally, the excess life-time cancer risk and the lung cancer cases per year per million persons (LLC) due to the consumption of the Rn-222 rich water have been assessed for the local inhabitants in this region.