A study of groundwater radon concentrations in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh States, India

In this paper, the results of radon concentrations in the drinking water in some areas of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh are presented. Samples were collected from the hand-pumps, tube-wells and natural springs, which are the major sources of drinking water in these areas. Radon concentration values in drinking water showed a wide variation depending on its source and location. The radon concentration values in hand-pump drawn groundwater have been found to be higher than the values from other sources. The recorded radon concentration in these samples has been found to vary from 1.0 +/- 0.3 to 48.0 +/- 2.2Bq center dot L-1. The radon concentration has also been measured in some thermal springs and these values have been found to be quite a lot higher than from other sources of ground water. Mineral water has the minimum radon concentration compared with groundwater sources.