Soil radioactivity and incidence of cancer in Nigeria [An article from: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity]

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The significance of exposure from natural radioactivity in soil and the potential risk for causing health detriment have not received adequate attention in Nigeria. Cancer has become a major cause of mortality in the recent times and now the public interest in the long-term effects of radiation on humans has assumed great prominence following the establishment of a nuclear regulatory body in Nigeria. This study is an effort to investigate a possible relationship between reported cancer incidence and external terrestrial radiation dose level across the six geo-political zones of the country. Data from the national cancer registries across the zones were compared with expected cancer incidences due to soil radioactivity based on the linear no-threshold model (LNT). A regression equation that best describe the reported cancer incidence and the expected cancer incidence was developed. It was observed that cancer cases attributable to radiation exposure due to soil radioactivity is low, constituting only between 1.3% and 9.2% of the total reported cases.