Assessment of radioactivity and radiological hazards in commercial ceramic tiles used in Ife-Central, local government area of Osun State, Nigeria

The activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides (40K, 232Th and 238U) in ceramic tiles use in homes and offices in Ile-Ife were investigated using a NaI (Tl) detector as the detecting device for gamma spectrometry.The gamma absorbed dose rate (DR), radium equivalent activity (Raeq), annual effective dose (Ad), activity concentration index (I), external radiation index (Hex), internal radiation hazard index (Hin), alpha index (Iα), activity concentration index (Iγ), excess lifetime cancer risk (EC), and annual gonadal dose equivalent (AGd) associated with the radionuclides were evaluated in order to assess the radiation hazard of ceramic tiles used in Ile-Ife. The mean activity concentrations of 850, 24, and 128 Bqkg^−1 were obtained for 40K, 232Th, and 238U, respectively. These resulted in an annual effective dose that ranged from 0.07 to 0.2 mSvy^−1 with a mean value of 0.14 mSvy^−1. The results showed that all the calculated radiological parameters are within the recommended safety limit, hence, do not pose significant radiological hazard when used as building materials. In order to determine the similarities and correlations among various samples, all the radiological variables above were subjected to correlation analysis.