Article

Seasonal indoor radon studies in buildings of Accra Metropolis of Greater Accra region of Ghana

¹ Radiation Protection Institute, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, P.O. Box LG 80, Legon-Accra, Ghana
² School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, University of Ghana, P.O. Box AE1, Atomic Campus, Accra, Ghana
³ Centro Regionale di Radioprotezione, Agenzia Regionale la Protezione dell’ Ambientale del Friuli Venzia Giulia, via 42 Colugna, 33100 Udine, Italy
⁴ National Nuclear Research Institute, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, P.O. Box LG 80, Legon-Accra, Ghana

^* Corresponding author: kwaotoo@yahoo.com

Received: 8 February 2018
Accepted: 9 May 2018

Abstract

Indoor radon concentration for annual, rainy and dry season have been studied in 228 buildings which includes bedroom, kitchen, sitting room, laboratories and offices in Accra metropolis of Greater Accra of Ghana. The passive radon CR-39 SSNTD was used for this study. The cumulative frequency distribution, normalizing Q-Q plots, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk statistical test showed that the result of both workplaces and dwellings are not normally distributed. The strong positive correlation between the two seasons occurred at 95% confidence level with 2 tailed. The rainy season recorded highest coefficient variation of r² = 0.982. Statistical analysis of median (39.3), AM (103.4), GM (57.9) and GSD (3.2) for rainy season were greater than that of the dry season of median (26.9), AM (88.2), GM (49.2) and GSD (2.8) respectively. Rainy season was found to contain high radon concentrations than the dry season for all the studied locations. In general, workplace had radon concentration far greater than dwellings. The results obtained from this study ranged between 13.6 to 533.7 Bq/m³, out of which 9.6%, 12.7% and 3.5% were found to be greater than action levels proposed by WHO, EC and ICRP.