Measurement of Outdoor and Indoor Background Ionizing Radiation of O.B. Lulu Briggs Health Center, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Measurement of outdoor and indoor background ionizing radiation (BIR) of O.B. Lulu Briggs Health Centre in the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria was carried out using a well-calibrated Radalert-100 (Radiation meter) and Digilert-200 meters and Global Positioning System (Garmin 765). 30 selected locations were considered. The outdoor and indoor results are as follows respectively, average exposure rates are 0.012±0.001 and 0.013±0.001 mR/h, mean absorbed dose rate (ADR) are 105.6 and 96.28 nGy/h, estimated value of the annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) are 0.17 and 0.27 mSv/y and mean excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) are (0.60 and 0.92) x 10-3. The obtained values for BIR in O.B. Lulu Briggs Health Centre are not above the recommended standard limit of 0.013mR/h by International Commission on Radiological protection (ICRP). AEDE that was calculated in the entire O.B. Lulu Briggs Health Centre is within safe values, the ELCR and the ADR estimated were higher than the world permissible values of 0.29 x 10-3 and 84.0 nGy/h respectively. The calculated dose to organs for O.B. Lulu Briggs showed that the testes have the highest organ dose of (0.140667 and 0.218053) mSv/y for outdoor and indoor respectively.