Article

Indoor radon monitoring in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, India, for health hazard assessment

¹ Department of Physics, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab 144411, India
² National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARL, Taipei 106, Taiwan
³ Department of Physics, Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar, Punjab 144004, India
⁴ Govt. College Sarkaghat, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh 175024, India

^* kumararvind79@hotmail.com

Received: 16 September 2015
Accepted: 28 October 2015

Abstract

In the present study, indoor radon equilibrium equivalent concentration monitoring was carried out using Solid-State Nuclear Track Detectors in some residential areas of the Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, India. The average value of the indoor radon equilibrium equivalent concentration in the study area was found to be 94 Bq m^-3, with an annual effective dose of 1.61 mSv. The average value of the indoor radon equilibrium equivalent concentration in the studied areas was found to be higher than the world average indoor radon value of 40 Bq m^-3 but lower than the value of the action level 300 Bq m^-3, except for two locations.