Gonad, bone marrow and effective dose to the population of more than 90 towns and cities of Iran, arising from environmental gamma radiation

Background: Since 1996 the assessment of environmental gamma radiation dose in residential areas of Iranian towns and cities has been accomplished for 10 counties. As a practical method and based on the results of a pilot study, in order to attribute the final results to the whole residential area of a town five stations were selected for every town. The location of individual station was studied closely to comply with recommended conditions in the literature. Materials and Methods: RDS-110 was employed to measure gamma dose rate for one hour. Average annual dose rates plus conversion coefficients were employed to estimate gonad, bone marrow, equivalent and effective dose. Result: Minimum and maximum annual bone marrow and gonad dose equivalent attributed to environmental gamma are 0.24 mSvy(-1) (for both tissues) and 1.44 and 1.46 mSvy(-1), respectively. Conclusion: Average gonad and bone marrow doses for North Khorasan, Boshehr and Hormozgan provinces were less than the corresponding values for normal area. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2009; 7 (1): 41-47