Determination of radiological hazards and the transfer factors of radionulides from soil to vegetables in the southwestern district of Bangladesh

The activity concentrations,gamma absorbed dose rates (d),radium equivalent activities (raeq),external hazard index (hex),internal hazard index (hin) and transfer factors (tfs) of the naturally occurring radionuclides 226ra,232th,and 40k,as well as the artificial radionuclide 137cs,in soil and vegetables (red amaranth) samples were determined from samples collected from satkhira,the southwestern district of bangladesh,using a high-purity germanium (hpge) detector. the activity concentrations of 226ra,232th and 40k in soil samples ranged from 26.05 ± 3.49 to 48.45 ± 4.45 bq kg-1 (average = 35.71 ± 3.92 bq kg-1),46.78 ± 3.24 to 62.63 ± 3.68 bq kg-1 (average = 54.06 ± 3.45 bq kg-1) and 411 ± 67 to 775 ± 77 bq kg-1 (average = 580.6 ± 71.63 bq kg-1),respectively,and the radioactivity concentrations of 226ra,232th and 40k in vegetable samples from the same locations were 4.04 ± 2 to 12.07 ± 2.36 bq kg-1 (average = 6.86 ± 2.12 bq kg-1),9.01 ± 1.54 to 23.62 ± 1.94 bq kg-1 (average = 14.89 ± 1.70 bq kg-1) and 1124 ± 73 to 1453 ± 76 bq kg-1 (average = 1288.7 ± 74.41 bq kg-1),respectively. no 137cs activity concentration was detected in any of the samples from this district. the measured values of d,raeq,hex and hin are comparable to the global averages. with the exception of 40k,the transfer factors of all radionuclides were below unity. © penerbit universiti sains malaysia,2015.