Abstract Background and purpose: People are always exposed to ionizing radiation, which could badly influence their health. The degree of these influences depends on the level of radiations. In this study the dose of indoor gamma radiation was assessed using RDS-110 Multi-purpose Survey Meter. Materials and methods: To determine the dose rate of indoor radiations in cities of Hamedan province four stations in the length of main directions and one in the center of each city were selected. Some houses were randomly selected according to the population of each town. Results: The mean annual equivalent dose in Hamadan province is 1.20±0.070 mSv. The maximum and minimum indoor environmental background radiations were seen in Razan (1.41±0.079 mSv) and Asadabad (0.955±0.044 mSv), respectively. Among buildings more and less than 25 years old, the maximum of γ indoor background radiation were 1.42±0.219 mSv and 1.44±0.149 mSv, respectively. Conclusion: According to this study, the gamma indoor annual equivalent dose in Hamadan province exceeded the global mean external exposure recommended by UNSCEAR (0.5 mSv). However, further studies are needed to measure the level of internal exposures to determine the total environmental radiation in Hamadan province.

Keywords: Gamma, Equivalent Dose, Background Radiation, Natural radiation, RDS

Full-Text [PDF 202 kb]   (2970 Downloads)