Assessment and Comparative Study of Radon Level in Water Samples Collected within Ogbomoso Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

In the recent time, due to the unavailability of public pipe borne water which the government provides for use, the alternative uncased and cased water became the popular means of water supply, both in rural and urban areas, not minding the likely health effect that may arise due to high level of concentration of radon and its progeny in drinking water from the aforementioned sources. Hence, this study focuses on the radon concentration in underground water samples collected across Ogbomoso land. A total of 300 water samples were collected, comprising of 160 water samples from uncased and 140 samples from cased well. The samples were analysed using a well calibrated active electronic radon detector RAD7 (DURRIDGE Company Inc., USA). The results obtained revealed that the radon concentration of the uncased well is in the range of 3.30 kBqm^-3 to 33.95 kBqm^-3, while the radon concentration for the cased well fell in the range 30.39 kBqm^-3 to 65.98 kBqm^-3. The results obtained from the two categories of water samples analyzed showed that the cased well sources had the highest concentration of radon compared with the limit set by local and international bodies. Hence, appropriate measures should be taken to mitigate the level of concentration of radon in the water within the study area before consumption. Concerted effort should also be made by the health workers to enlighten the residence on the potential harmful effect of radon to human health.