Radon Exhalation Rate of Some Building Materials Used in Egypt

Indoor radon has been recognized as one of the health hazards for mankind. Common building materials used for construction of houses, which are considered as one of the major sources of this gas in indoor environment, have been studied for exhalation rate of radon. Non-nuclear industries, such as coal fired power plants or fertilizer production facilities, generate large amounts of waste gypsum as by-products. Compared to other building materials waste gypsum from fertilizer production facilities (phosphogypsum) shows increased rates of radon exhalation. In the present, investigation solid state alpha track detectors, CR-39 plastic detectors, were used to measure the indoor radon concentration and the radon exhalation rates from some building materials used in Egypt. The indoor radon concentration and the radon exhalation rate ranges were found to be 24–55 Bq m⁻³ and 11–223 mBq m⁻² h⁻¹, respectively. The effective dose equivalent range for the indoor was found 0.6–1.4 mSv y⁻¹. The equilibrium factor between radon and its daughters increased with the increase of relative humidity.