Journal of Physics and Astronomy Research

Vol. 6(1), pp. 097-099, March, 2020. © www.premierpublishers.org. ISSN: 9098-7709

Research Article
Nuclear Track Detection of Radon Activities among Branded
Bottled Water and Locally Bottled Water in Afghanistan
Marufat Fazli
Lecturer, Department of Physics Education Faculty, Jawzjan University, Sheberghan, Afghanistan
Email: marufatfazli01@gmail.com

In this study, radon activities and exhalation rate were calculated in ten bottled waters (branded
and locally). The measurements were performed by nuclear track detectors. The findings of the
study indicated that radon activities in all the analysed samples of branded bottled waters were
found to be lower than the maximum contamination level recommended for drinking water by
United State Public Health Service (USEPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines
value. Further, the result showed that the mean value of radon activity in local bottled waters is
higher than the mean value from branded bottled waters. The results revealed that revealed that
all investigated samples of branded bottled water are safe for consumption in Afghanistan from
the point of radon activity.
Keywords: Radon activity, bottled water, radon emission, radioactivity.

INTRODUCTION
Water is the most important source for life and makes up
70 - 75% of total body weight. While 70% of the world's
surface is covered by water, only 0.3 % of the total water
resources on earth is drinkable and suitable for daily use.
Human race provides their water from surface water and
ground water. Ground water is more radioactive than
surface water since it passes through rock and soil
formations, dissolves many compounds, minerals and
radioactive substances. The radionuclides in drinking
water are members of three natural radioactive series.
These are the uranium series, the thorium series and the
actinium series. The specific elements of concern are
radium, radon and uranium. The nuclides of the uranium
series which can be dangerous to health because of their
presence in drinking water are 226Ra and 222Rn.
The 226Ra (half-life 1622 years) decays to 222Rn by emitting
alpha particles. Thereafter, 222Rn undergoes multiple
alpha and beta decays in succession resulting in various
isotopes of polonium, astatine, bismuth, thallium, and lead
(Eisenbud and Gesell, 1997). Making the analysis of
exposure to a substance such as radium, several factors
determine which effects may occur and also the severity of
these effects. Among those factors are the dose, the
duration of exposure, the manner of exposure (inhalation,
ingestion or contact), other agents to which the individual
is exposed as well as individual characteristics like an age,
sex, nutritional characteristics, lifestyle, and health status
(USPHS and USEPA, 1990).
Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive element. It is a
colourless, odourless and chemically inert gas and has no
taste. It can only be measured with special equipment.
Radon is also fairly soluble in water and organic solvents.
Although reaction with other compounds is comparatively
rare, it is not completely inert and forms stable molecules
with highly electronegative ions. The radioactive decay of
radon produces floating subatomic particles that can
damage living cells. When radon is inhaled, 30% of the
radon progeny comes in to contact with air passage in the
lung and adhere to the surfaces. The ingestion of radon
and radium from water can give rise to an additional
exposure dose to the stomach and whole body.
The measurement of radioactivity in drinking water permits
us to determine the exposure of the population to radiation
from the habitual consumption of water (Duenas et al.,
1999). The radionuclides in drinking water are members of
three natural radioactive series. These are the uranium
series, the thorium series and the actinium series. The
specific elements of concern are radium (Ra), radon (Rn)
and uranium (U). The nuclides in the uranium series that
may pose a health risk because of their presence in
drinking water are 238U, 226Ra and 222Rn.

Nuclear Track Detection of Radon Activities among Branded Bottled Water and Locally Bottled Water in Afghanistan
Fazli M. 098
226Ra is considered because, apart from being an emitter
of alpha radiation, it has a chemical behaviour with
alkaline-earth characteristics similar to that of calcium.
This chemical behaviour produces a tendency to be
concentrated in bones resulting in irradiation of bone
marrow.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Five samples each of bottled water from various brand
names (BB) and locally bottled water (LB) were collected
from the local market. For measurements purpose, 150 ml
was collected for each sample tested. Branded water
bottles were purchased from various places of
Afghanistan.
Radon Monitoring System
The radon monitoring system consists of two tightly
coupled cup-type plastic containers (Kadi and Al-Eryani,
2012). One of them is a detection chamber and the other
is a water container. Solid-state nuclear track detectors
CR-39, 2.5 × 2.5 cm in size, were attached to the bottom
of detection chamber in an empty volume of 150 ml. The
water container had approximately 150 ml water. There is
a round hole (D = 1.5 cm) in the middle of the lid of the
detection chamber, which is covered with a sponge filter.
The function of this filter is to reduce the humidity in the
detection chamber and to discriminate against thoron
220Rn (half-life is 55.6 s) by hindering its diffusion into the
volume of the detection. The two coupled cup-type
containers were stored for more than one month to allow
radioactive equilibrium to be reached in all samples.
Etching and Scanning System
After exposure to radon, the detectors were collected from
the detection chambers and etched by using 6.25 M NaOH
solution (250 grams of solid NaOH made up to one liter of
water) at 70°C in a water bath for 6 hours. After etching,
the detectors were removed from the solution and cleaned
in distilled water for 15 s, then, transferred to a 2%
neutralizing solution (by adding 2 parts glacial acetic acid
to 98 parts distilled water) for 30 min. Finally, the detectors
were removed from the neutralizing solution and placed in
distilled water for 10 min then placed in a drying cabinet for
20 minutes.
Theoretical Calculations
The radon concentration RnAir in detection chamber was
calculated using the following equation [1]:
RnAir (Bq m-3) = ρ/(Tη) ………………………… (1)
Nuclear Track Detection of Radon Activities among Branded Bottled Water and Locally Bottled Water in Afghanistan
where ρ is the track density on the detector, T is the
exposure time and η is the calibration factor (tracks cm-2
recorded per Bq m-3h-1).
The radon activity in water, Rnwater, was calculated by
using a model proposed by Al-Bataina et al., (1997):
Rnwater = (λ RnAir h T)/L ……………………………. (2)
where λ is the radon decay constant, h is the distance from
surface of water in sample cup to detector, T is the
exposure time and L is depth of the sample.
The radon exhalation rates, Ewater, were calculated using
the following equation (Baykara et al., 2006; Alshahri,
2014):
Ewater (mBq m-2 h-1) = (ρV λ /A)/ η Teff ………………. (3)
where ρ is the track density measured in the CR-39
detector (track cm-2), V is effective volume of detection
chamber (150 cm3), λ is the radon decay constant, η is the
calibration factor (tracks cm-2 recorded per Bq m-3 h-1), A is
the surface area of the sample (m2) and Teff is the effective
exposure time which is defined as:
Teff = T – (1/ λ) (1 – e- λ T) ……………………………. (4)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
222RnAir (Bq m-3) activity was determined in the range of
6.87 and 11.0 in the case of local bottled water. The values
were between 2.04 and 4.11 for branded bottled water
(Fig-1). Similarly, the values of 222Rnwater (Bq m-3) were
higher in local bottled water than branded bottled water
(Fig-2). EA (mBq m-2 h-1) were in the range of 0.59 and
4.81 which was again higher in local bottled water (Fig-3).
By comparing the radon activity in bottled water from
various sources, the mean value of radon activity in non-
branded bottled water is higher than mean values in
branded bottled water. This is probably due to most of local
non-branded bottled water were produced from ground
well water which contain activity of higher radon.
Figure 1: 222RnAir (Bq m-3)

Fig 2: 222Rnwater (Bq m-3)
Fig 3: EA (mBq m-2 h-1)
CONCLUSION
In this study, radon activities and exhalation rate were
calculated in ten bottled waters (branded and local). The
measurements were performed by nuclear track detectors.
The findings of the study conclude that radon activities in
all the analyzed samples of branded bottled waters were
found to be lower than the maximum contamination level
recommended for drinking water by USEPA and the WHO
guidelines value. Further, the result showed that the mean
value of radon activity in local bottled waters is higher than
the mean value from branded bottled waters.
This study indicates that all investigated samples of
branded bottled water are safe for consumption in
Afghanistan. However, the increase of local bottled waters
in the local market every year emphasizes the need to
more studies on radon concentration in new local bottled
water to monitoring and estimate the radiological risk from
consuming local bottled waters.
Nuclear Track Detection of Radon Activities among Branded Bottled Water and Locally Bottled Water in Afghanistan
J. Phys. Astron. Res. 099
REFERENCES
Eisenbud M.; Gesell, T. 1997. Environmental Radioactivity
from Natural, Industrial and Military Sources. 4a ed.
California: Academic Press.
USPHS and USEPA – United States Public Health Service
and United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Toxicological Profile for Radium. Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry. Atlanta: 1990.
Duenas, C., Fernandez, M.C., Carretero, J., Liger, E.,
Canete, S. 1999. 226Ra and 222Rn concentrations and
doses in bottled waters in Spain. J. Environ.
Radioactivity, 45: 283–290.
Baykara, O, M Dogru. 2006. Measurements of radon and
uranium concentration in water and soil samples from
East Anatolian Active Fault Systems (Turkey).
Radiation Measurements 41 (3): 362-367.
Alshahri F. 2014. Measurement of 222Rn Concentration
and Exhalation Rate from Phosphate Rocks Using
SSBD Detector in Saudi Arabia. Arabian Journal for
Science and Engineering 39(7): 5765-5770.
Al-Bataina BA, Ismail AM, Kullab MK, Abumurad
KM. Mustafa H. 1997. Radon measurements in
different types of natural waters in
Jordan. Radiat Meas. 28: 591-594.
Kadi, M.W, D. A. Al-Eryani. 2012. Natural Radioactivity
and Radon Exhalation in Phosphate Fertilizers. Arab.
J. Sci. Eng. 37: 225–231.
Accepted 4 February 2020
Citation: Fazli M (2020). Nuclear Track Detection of
Radon Activities among Branded Bottled Water and
Locally Bottled Water in Afghanistan. Journal of Physics
and Astronomy Research. 6(1): 097-099.
Copyright: © 2020. Fazli M. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are cited.