Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription or Fee Access

Radon Monitoring in Underground Water of Punjab State and Thermal Springs of Himachal Pradesh

H S. Virk, B. Sansoni

Abstract


The source of Radon gas is generally within the rock strata in the form of an intermediate decay product of the U/Th radioactive series. It migrates from the earth’s crust to atmosphere by diffusion in the aqueous media. Radon monitoring is carried out to study health hazard effects. Scintillometry technique was used for measurement of Radon concentration in groundwater of Gurdaspur district and Parbati valley of HP. Radon concentration values show wide spread variation in drinking water of area under study. The hand pumps drawn water has higher value of radon concentration compared with the other sources including motor-driven pumps, tube-wells, municipal water supply and canal water. The average radon concentration values are 6.5, 5.8, 5.0, 4.7 and 1.1 Bq/l for hand-pumps, motor-driven pumps, tube-wells, water supplies and canal waters, respectively. Most of the thermal springs are distributed along the major thrust faults in N-W Himalayas. Our purpose was to monitor radon in thermal springs of Parbati valley, HP state. The radon concentration varies from 15.9 to 716.3 Bq/l. The high radon concentration is correlatable with radium and uranium content of water and soil in the Parbati valley.

Keywords


Radon, groundwater, thermal springs, scintillometry, Parbati river

Full Text:

PDF

References


ICRP Publication50. Annals of ICRP.NY: Pergamon Press; 1987; 17(1).

Mishra UC,Ramachandran TV. Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Rare Gas Geochemistry. (Ed. H.S.Virk), Guru Nanak Dev University Press, Amritsar, (1997) p.310-319.

Nazaroff WW, DoyleSM. Radon entry into houses having a crawl space.HealthPhys. 1985;48(3): 265–281.

Ishankuliev J,Tretyakova SP. Radon measurements using SSNTD in the region of oil and gas deposits of West Turkmenistan.Nucl Tracks Radiat Meas. 1991;19(1–4): 329–331.

Igarashi G,Wakita H. Groundwater radon anomalies associated with earthquakes.Tectnophysics. 1990;180(2–4): 237–254.

Heinicke J, Koch U, Martinelli G. CO2 and Radon measurements in the Vogtland area (Germany)-a contribution to earthquake prediction research.Geophys Res Letters. 1995;22(7): 771–774.

Virk HS. Uranium and radon surveys in western Himalaya.Curr Sci. 1997;73(6): 536–538.

Virk HS, Sharma AK, Walia V.Correlation of alpha-logger radon data withmicroseismicity in N-W Himalaya.Curr Sci. 1997;72(9): 656–663.

Virk HS, Kumar N, Sharma AK. Radon/Helium survey of thermal springs ofParbati, Beas and Sutlej valleys in Himachal Himalaya.J Geol SocIndia. 1998;52: 523–528.

Virk HS, Kumar N, Sharma N, Bajwa BS. Alpha-Guard radon survey in soil gas and dwellings of some uranium-rich areas of HimachalPradesh,India.Curr Sci. 1998; 75(6): 430–431.

Das NK, Barat P, Sen P, Sinha B. Enrichment of helium from hydrothermal gases. Curr Sci. 2003;84(12): 1519–1524.

Singh R,Bandyopadhyay AK. Geochemical studies of some thermal springs in Hazaribagh district, Bihar, India. Ind Miner. 1995; 49(1&2): 55–60.

Dar KK.Some geological data on Atomic Energy minerals in India. J Geol Soc India. 1964; 5: 110–120.

Singh S, Dogra M, Singh B.Proc. 11th National Symp. SSNTD (Ed. S. Singh). Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University Press; 2000; pp. 288–291.

Sarin MM, Krishnaswami S, Sharma KK, Trivedi JR. Uranium isotopes and radium in the Bhagirathi-Alaknanda river system:Evidence for high uranium mobilization in the Himalaya.Curr Sci. 1992; 62(12): 801–805p.

Virk HS, Singh M. Uranium and radon anomalies in the river system of N-W Himalayas.Ind J Environ Prot. 1999; 19(10): 750–752.

UNSCEAR. Report to General Assembly. New York:United Nations; 1982.Available from https://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/publications/1982.html.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Research & Reviews: A Journal of Toxicology