Natural radioactivity of some Egyptian materials used in glasses manufacturing and glass ceramics

Background: the new glasses from harmful environmental waste such as cementdust; limestone phosphate, sand and borax (genkare) were manufactured. inves ga on of the radioactivity present in these materials (phosphate rock,cement dust, limestone, sand and borax) enables one to assess any possibleradiological hazard to humankind by such materials.materials and methods:fifteen samples were collected from five loca ons. activity measurements havebeen performed by gamma-ray spectrometer, employing a high-resolu onscin lla on detector nai (tl) crystal 3 ×3 inch. in addi on, the radiological hazardswere calculated for the inves gated samples. results: the average values ofactivity ranged from 28±2 to 163±12, 2.8±0.7 to 40±3 and from 49±4 to1337±74 bq kg-1 for ^226r, 232th and ^40k, respectively. the values of absorbeddose rates, radium equivalent activities and annual effec ve dose due to226ra, 232th and 40k respec vely, are ranged from 22.05 to 101.59 ngy h-1,45.90 to 224.22 bq kg^-1 and 27.04 to 124.59 μsv y-1. in addition, the values ofexternal hazard index, internal hazard index and gamma index have beencalculated. conclusion: according to the obtained results, all materials wouldnot present a significant radiological hazard except phosphate. the results of thestudy could serve as important baseline radiometric data for future epidemiologicalstudies and monitoring initiatives.