A comprehensive study was conducted to understand the radon (222Rn) distribution and associated radiation doses to the public in a small tropical river basin partly set in the western slope of the Southern Western Ghats of Kerala, India. Radon, though detected in all the 71 monitored wells (0.17-68.3 Bq L-1), exceeded the maximum contamination level (MCL) of 11.1 Bq L-1 for drinking water recommended by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in eight samples from isolated pockets of highland, midland and lowland of the Karamana River Basin (KRB) and found to be well within 100 Bq L-1, the parametric value suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union (EU). The age-wise total annual effective doses (AEDs) of groundwater radon activity ranged from 0.5-208.4 μSv a-1 for infants, 0.4-172.2 for children and 0.5-189.7 μSv a-1 for adults. The results reveal that effective doses due to groundwater radon pose no potential public health risk in the study region. Since there is no previous background information on radon-induced radiation dose in the KRB, this work is a newfangled attempt from a public health point of view.

中文翻译：

---

评价印度喀拉拉邦一个热带小河流域地下水中氡摄入和吸入的辐射剂量

进行了一项综合研究，以了解部分位于印度喀拉拉邦西高止山脉西坡的小热带河流域中氡 (222Rn) 的分布和对公众的相关辐射剂量。尽管在所有 71 个监测井中都检测到氡 (0.17-68.3 Bq L-1)，但在 8 个样品中超过了美国环境保护署 (USEPA) 推荐的饮用水的最大污染水平 (MCL) 11.1 Bq L-1来自卡拉马纳河流域 (KRB) 的高地、中部和低地的孤立口袋，并发现在 100 Bq L-1 范围内，这是世界卫生组织 (WHO) 和欧盟 (EU) 建议的参数值。地下水氡活动的年龄总年有效剂量 (AEDs) 范围为婴儿 0.5-208.4 μSv a-1、儿童 0.4-172.2 和 0。成人 5-189.7 μSv a-1。结果表明，地下水氡的有效剂量不会在研究区域造成潜在的公共卫生风险。由于之前没有关于 KRB 中氡引起的辐射剂量的背景信息，因此从公共卫生的角度来看，这项工作是一次新奇的尝试。