Alpha activity in Indian thermal springs

Background: and soils with which it comes in contact. There is dual exposure from radon in water i.e. due to inhalation of the radon released from the water into the ambient air and through ingestion when water is used for drinking. As radon contaminated water adversely affects the health, it is therefore fundamental from health and hygiene point of view to measure radium concentration and radon exhalation rates in water. Dissolved radon is contained in natural water due to primordial uranium in rocks Materials and Methods radium concentration and radon exhalation rate in water samples collected from various thermal springs. The alpha tracks registered were counted by optical microscope at suitable magnification and converted into radium concentration and subsequently radon exhalation rates were measured. : LR-115, Type- II plastic track detectors were used to measure the Results: m varied from 5.65 Bq l exhalation rates varied from 2.37 mBq kg ± 0.36 mBq kg The radon concentration emanated from water samples (air borne) varied from 84 Bq-3 to 827 Bq m-3 with an average of 429 ± 12.72 Bqm-3 and the dissolved radon concentration-1 to 55.66 Bq l-1 with an average of 28.88± 0.85 Bq l-1. The radon mass-1 hr-1 to 23.39 mBq kg-1 hr-1 with an average of 12.14-1 hr-1 and surface exhalation rates from 52.34 mBq m-2 hr-1 to 515.29 mBq m-2 hr-1 with an average of 267.36 ± 7.93 from different thermal spring water samples. concentration varied from 0.30 Bq l The radium-1 to 2.93 Bq l-1 with an average of 1.52 ± 0.045 Bq l-1. Conclusion: drinking, is safe as far as radium concentration is concerned with the exception of a few isolated thermal spring sources.