Assessment of alpha activity of building materials commonly used in West Bengal, India

Our plain-English summary of Assessment of alpha activity of building materials commonly used in West Bengal, India, by D. Ghosh, A. Deb, S. Bera, et al (Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 2008).

The study

• Authors: D. Ghosh, A. Deb, S. Bera, R. Sengupta, K.K. Patra
• Journal: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
• Published: 2008;99(2):316-21
• Cited by: 7 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

This paper, reports for the first time, an extensive study of alpha activity of all widely used building materials (plaster of Paris, stone chips, marble, white cement, mosaic stone, limestone, sand, granite, cement brick, asbestos, red brick, cement tile, ceramic tile and ceramics) in West Bengal, India. The alpha activities have been measured using Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (SSNTD), a very sensitive detector for alpha particles. The samples were collected from local markets of Kolkata. The measured average alpha activities ranged from 22.7+/-2.5 to 590.6+/-16.8Bqkg(-1). The alpha activity of ceramic tiles was highest and provides additional data to estimate the effect of environmental radiation exposure on human health.

In plain English

This laboratory measurement study tested alpha radioactivity in building materials widely used in West Bengal, India. It did not study people or disease. Samples of plaster of Paris, stone chips, marble, white cement, mosaic stone, limestone, sand, granite, cement brick, asbestos, red brick, cement tile, ceramic tile and ceramics were collected from factories, construction sites and local markets of Kolkata. They were ground to powder and placed beside plastic alpha-particle detectors for about 70 days. Average alpha activity ranged from 22.7 plus or minus 2.5 becquerels per kilogram in plaster of Paris to 590.6 plus or minus 16.8 in ceramics. Asbestos samples from five companies ranged from 150.5 to 286.8, averaging 217.5 plus or minus 23.2 becquerels per kilogram. No asbestos type was named. Asbestos, red brick, cement tile, ceramic tile and ceramics were among the materials with higher measured activity than the rest. The authors concluded that wide use of asbestos, cement, red brick, cement tile, ceramic tile and ceramics may increase health hazards because of their higher alpha activity. Their cement figures came from their own earlier study. They did not examine radon release from the materials.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: laboratory measurement study of alpha radioactivity in building material samples, using CR-39 solid state nuclear track detectors exposed to powdered samples for about 70 days; no human subjects
• Who was studied: samples of building materials widely used in West Bengal, India (plaster of Paris, stone chips, marble, white cement, mosaic stone, limestone, sand, granite, cement brick, asbestos, red brick, cement tile, ceramic tile and ceramics), collected from factories, construction sites and local markets of Kolkata; five samples per material (for asbestos, from five different companies)
• Exposure: alpha radioactivity of the materials themselves, measured in becquerels per kilogram; asbestos was one of the materials tested, and no fiber type was specified
• Main results:
  • Across materials, the lowest average alpha activity was 22.7 plus or minus 2.5 Bq/kg in plaster of Paris and the highest was 590.6 plus or minus 16.8 Bq/kg in ceramics, about 26 times greater
  • Asbestos samples (five companies) ranged from 150.5 to 286.8 Bq/kg, with an average of 217.5 plus or minus 23.2 Bq/kg
  • The authors described the spread of values in asbestos as large compared with the other materials and attributed it to uneven distribution of radionuclides in the rocks from which building materials are derived
  • The materials tested in this study with the lower average activity were plaster of Paris, stone chips, marble, white cement, mosaic stone, limestone, sand, granite and cement brick (22.7 to 83.8 Bq/kg in Table 1). Asbestos (217.5), red brick (283.4), cement tile (313.6), ceramic tile (478) and ceramics (590.6) were among the materials with higher activity. Cement tile averaged higher than both asbestos and red brick.
  • Ceramic tiles (410.8 to 524.3 Bq/kg, average 478 plus or minus 20) were more radioactive than cement tiles (250.1 to 383.1 Bq/kg; average given as 313 plus or minus 25 in the text and 313.6 plus or minus 25.9 in Table 1)
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that wide use of asbestos, cement, red brick, cement tile, ceramic tile and ceramics as building materials may increase health hazards due to their enhanced alpha activities. The cement values come from the authors' earlier 2007 study, not this one.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Emanation and exhalation of radon from the building materials was not considered in this study

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