The correlations between Radon in soil gas and its exhalation and concentration in air in the southern part of Syria

摘要

The aim of this work is to measure the concentration of the radon (Rn-222) in Soil air, 222Rn exhalation from soil and 222Rn in outdoor air which may have great influence on 222Rn levels in houses. Ra-222 activity concentrations were also determined in soil samples. The studied areas are located in southern part of Syria. The common bed rock of this area is black and massive granite which are poor in uranium content [Jubeli Y.M., 1990. Uranium exploration in Syria. Internal Technical Report, vol. I (in English), vol. 2 (in Arabic), SAEC, Damascus; Technoexport (USSR), 1966. In: Ponikarov (Ed.), The Geological Map of Syria Scale: 1:200.000, Ministry of Industry, Damascus, Syria]. Results showed that the maximum measurement in all areas was 32500 Bq m(-3) in soil air with an exhalation rate of 9 Bq m(-2) s(-1) in Darra region and 66.43 Bq m(-3) of radon in open air, with 77 Bq kg(-1) of radium content in soil (Damascus suburb). In addition, correlations between Rn in soil and exhalation of Radon from soil and radon in houses were found in some areas (Sweda and Darra), while, no correlations were found in other studied areas. Moreover, no correlation between radon in houses and radon measurements in soil and in outdoors were found. This was attributed to the methodology used and the influence of building design and inhabitants behavior. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.