Estimation of annual effective dose due to Radon level in indoor air and soil gas in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh

• Indoor air and soil gas radon measurements are performed using RAD7.
• This is done for investigating the geographical variation of the radon concentration.
• Solid state detector measures radon gas concentration in a simpler and faster way.
• Radon monitoring in air and soil is affected by the geology of the study area.
• A good correlation between radon concentration in air and soil gas is observed.

Indoor air and soil gas radon measurements are simultaneously performed in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh using RAD7, a solid state alpha detector. The study is performed for the estimation of radon level and annual effective dose for indoor air. Different locations are selected and it is found that the variation of radon concentration in indoor air and soil gas in Hamirpur region ranges from 35 Bq m− 3 to 956 Bq m− 3 and 35 to 2280 Bq m− 3 having mean values 189.43 Bq m− 3 and 462.56 Bq m− 3 respectively. From indoor air, the total annual effective dose is calculated and it varies from 0.88 mSv y− 1 to 24.09 mSv y− 1 with mean value of 4.77 mSv y− 1. In general, it is found that the annual effective dose limit was within the recommended reference level (3 mSv y− 1to 10 mSv y− 1) of the world organisations. A good correlation between radon concentration in air and soil gas is observed.