Determination Effective Dose of Radon 222 in the Packaged Drinking Water in Various age Groups; Tehran, Iran

Radon 222 is a natural radioactive material with a half-life of 3.8 days, colorless and odorless. Consumption of water containing high concentration of Radon 222 leads to increase in the effective dose received in different age groups and following that increase in the prevalence of gastric cancer. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, concentration of Radon 222 of 17 packaged widely-consumed water in Tehran city was measured by portable Radon detector RTM1688-2 model. Also the received effective dose by the group ages of adult men and women, children and infants was calculated through the provided equation of UNSCEAR. The mean and range concentration of Radon 222 was 69.6±0.58 Bq/m3 and 0 – 458.6±5.3 Bq/m3, respectively. The received effective dose by the age groups of infants, children, adult men and women was 0009, 0.004, 0.006 and 0.008 mSv/y, respectively. The mean concentration of Radon 222 is lower than WHO and EPA standard limits. The arrangement of the received effective dose in different age groups is; infants>adult men>adult women>children. The received effective doses of Radon 222 in all age groups especially infants and adult men was lower than the of 0.1 mSv/y standard limit.