Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan 21;18(3):920.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18030920.

Radon Activity Concentrations in Natural Hot Spring Water: Dose Assessment and Health Perspective

Eka Djatnika Nugraha  1   2 , Masahiro Hosoda  2   3 , June Mellawati  1 , Untara Untara  1 , Ilsa Rosianna  4 , Yuki Tamakuma  2   3 , Oumar Bobbo Modibo  2 , Chutima Kranrod  3 , Kusdiana Kusdiana  1 , Shinji Tokonami  3
Affiliations

Radon Activity Concentrations in Natural Hot Spring Water: Dose Assessment and Health Perspective

Eka Djatnika Nugraha et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The world community has long used natural hot springs for tourist and medicinal purposes. In Indonesia, the province of West Java, which is naturally surrounded by volcanoes, is the main destination for hot spring tourism. This paper is the first report on radon measurements in tourism natural hot spring water in Indonesia as part of radiation protection for public health. The purpose of this paper is to study the contribution of radon doses from natural hot spring water and thereby facilitate radiation protection for public health. A total of 18 water samples were measured with an electrostatic collection type radon monitor (RAD7, Durridge Co., USA). The concentration of radon in natural hot spring water samples in the West Java region, Indonesia ranges from 0.26 to 31 Bq L-1. An estimate of the annual effective dose in the natural hot spring water area ranges from 0.51 to 0.71 mSv with a mean of 0.60 mSv for workers. Meanwhile, the annual effective dose for the public ranges from 0.10 to 0.14 mSv with an average of 0.12 mSv. This value is within the range of the average committed effective dose from inhalation and terrestrial radiation for the general public, 1.7 mSv annually.

Keywords: dose assessment; hot spring; public health; radon.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The study area, covering three cities: Bandung, Subang, and Garut. The black dots represent cities, and red asterisks indicate sampling locations.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic of experimental setup for measuring dissolved 222Rn measurement
Figure 3
Figure 3
Radon activity concentration in water samples. MCL = maximum contaminant level.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation . UNSCEAR 2008 Report, Sources and Effects of Ionising Radiation. Volume I: Annex B Exposures of the Public and Workers from Various Sources of Radiation. UNSCEAR; New York, NY, USA: 2010.
    1. World Health Organization . WHO Handbook on Indoor Radon: A Public Health Perspective. WHO; Geneva, Switzerland: 2009. - PubMed
    1. International Commission on Radiological Protection . Annals of the ICRP: Occupational Intakes of Radionuclides: Part 3. ICRP; New York, NY, USA: 2017.
    1. United State of America Environmental Protection Agency . USEPA (1991) National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Radionuclides (Proposed Rule) Federal Register. U.S. E.P.A.; New York, NY, USA: 1991.
    1. Gruber V., Maringer F.J., Landstetter C. Radon and other natural radionuclides in drinking water in Austria: Measurement and assessment. Appl. Radiat. Isot. 2009;67:913–917. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2009.01.056. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources