Effect of Soil and Water Radioactivity on Life

Water, an essential part of life, covers about 71% of the Earth's surface, is necessary to know its safety when it comes to human consumption. Conversely, the remaining 29% is covered by land(soil) which man uses to cultivate.In this project, assessment of natural radioactivity in soil and ground-waste samples have been made within the basement complex of Tanke district of Ilorin in West Central part of Nigeria. The work has been carried out keeping in mind the health effect of radio-elements in the environment. The results revealed the presence of potassium, Uranium and Thorium radio-elements for the soil, while Radium 226 and 228 were tested in water. The radio-activities in soil samples of the area are found to be within global range for average terrestrial ionizing radiation exposure due to radionuclides in the soil. The mean contribution of both Radium 226 and 228 activities to the committed effective dose from a year's consumption of drinking water in the study area is therefore higher than the tolerable level of 1mSv/y to the general public for prolonged exposure as recommended by I.C.R.P, and much more than the new WHO recommended level of 0.1mSv/y for drinking water.