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Health-Related Analysis of Uranium in Fazilka District, Punjab, India


Affiliations
1 Department of Applied Sciences, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Saboo 151 302, India
2 Department of Physics, DAV College, Amritsar 143 001, India
 

Laser fluorimetry technique has been used to estimate uranium concentration in groundwater samples collected from 20 villages of Fazilka district, Punjab, India. The uranium concentration was found to vary from 4.32 to 83.99 μg l–1 at different locations with mean concentration of 26.51 μg l–1. Also, 24% of the drinking water samples exceeded the safe limits set by WHO, while 9% was above the limit set by AERB. Certain health risk factors like annual effective dose, excess cancer risk and lifetime average daily dose were also evaluated. The study also included uranium estimation in soil samples collected from the same villages using wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique. All the values were found to be well within the safe limits. Topography of the region seems to be the most likely reason for higher uranium concentration at some locations.

Keywords

Annual Effective Dose, Laser Fluorimetry, Safe Limits, Uranium.
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  • Health-Related Analysis of Uranium in Fazilka District, Punjab, India

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Authors

Saurabh Narang
Department of Applied Sciences, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Saboo 151 302, India
Deepak Kumar
Department of Applied Sciences, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Saboo 151 302, India
Ajay Kumar
Department of Physics, DAV College, Amritsar 143 001, India

Abstract


Laser fluorimetry technique has been used to estimate uranium concentration in groundwater samples collected from 20 villages of Fazilka district, Punjab, India. The uranium concentration was found to vary from 4.32 to 83.99 μg l–1 at different locations with mean concentration of 26.51 μg l–1. Also, 24% of the drinking water samples exceeded the safe limits set by WHO, while 9% was above the limit set by AERB. Certain health risk factors like annual effective dose, excess cancer risk and lifetime average daily dose were also evaluated. The study also included uranium estimation in soil samples collected from the same villages using wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique. All the values were found to be well within the safe limits. Topography of the region seems to be the most likely reason for higher uranium concentration at some locations.

Keywords


Annual Effective Dose, Laser Fluorimetry, Safe Limits, Uranium.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv115%2Fi11%2F2079-2084