Amaral Romilton Dos Santos, Morais Elaíze Nídia de Lima, Dos Santos Júnior José Araújo, da Silva Arykerne Nascimento Casado, Bezerra Jairo Dias, Dos Santos Junior Otávio Pereira
Group of Radioecology (Grupo de Radioecologia-RAE), Nuclear Energy Department (Departamento de Energia Nuclear-DEN), Center of Technology and Geosciences (Centro de Tecnologia e Geociências-CTG), Federal University of Pernambuco (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco-UFPE), Avenida Professor Luiz Freire, 1000 Cidade Universitária, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2018 Oct 1;181(3):181-189. doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncy005.
A marine phosphorus region with high concentrations of phosphate, coastwise of Pernambuco, Northeast of Brazil, is densely inhabited. Rock phosphate deposits naturally contain uranium ore that produces ionizing radiation from it and its natural descendants, furthermore, its thorium and potassium concentrations are comparable to those usually found in soils. Radiological monitoring of this environment is important to verify the occurrence of harmful effective doses for the adjacent population. This study aimed at the in situ radiometric monitoring in four cities of the north of the Metropolitan Region of Recife-Pernambuco, estimating the effective environmental dose to which the local population is subject. In total, 91 points were monitored with a discriminator-type detector. The outdoor environmental effective dose rates ranged from 1.99 ± 0.09 to 7.59 ± 0.36 mSv y-1, with an average of 2.60 ± 0.69 mSv y-1.
