Dose assessment of 137Cs in agricultural surface soil in Selangor, Malaysia

Background: the activity concentration (ac) of cesium-137 (137cs) in the agricultural soil was measured in this study to set reference data and an indicator of the radionuclide fallout especially in malaysia. materials and method: using the high purity germanium (hpge) gamma-ray spectrometer, the ac of 137cs was employed to determine the radiological hazards to the public. results: results revealed that the ac of 137cs in the soil samples ranged between 0.34 ± 0.09 to 3.21 ± 0.17 bqkg-1. dose rate computed from the corresponding value of ac ranged from 0.01 to 0.10 ngyh-1. the annual effective dose rate ranged between 1.25 to 11.8 μsv y-1. the values of excessive lifetime cancer risk, elcr ranged between 0.47 × 10^-5 to 4.45 × 10^-5 is lesser than the safety threshold of 0. 29 × 10^−3. the analysis of variance of this parameter is found to be at p<0.05 which is statistically significant in this study. conclusion: the outcomes from this study show that the analysed values are below than the recommended values by the united nations scientific committee on the effects of atomic radiation (uncsear) and the international commission on radiological protection (icrp) and do not cause any radiological hazards to the general population.