Measurement of Natural Radioactivity in Building Materials: Assessment of Radiological Risk due to Building Materials

This manuscript describes the natural radioactivity and its health hazard effects due to building materials. An overview of other natural radioactivity sources like uranium, radium, thorium and potassium and, also the types of radiations has been discussed. A brief description of radiation units, exposure limits and guidelines given by International Commission on Radiological Protection is also given. It represents a brief description of radium, thorium and potassium measurement techniques, materials and instruments used in the present study. The building material have been analyzed for radium analysis using Gama Ray Spectroscopy technique. The activity content has been determined by calculating the concentration of these elements in the different building material samples, taken from different areas.