EXPOSURE LEVELS WITHIN BUILDING MATERIALS SHOPS IN CALABAR, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

Man is always exposed to some levels of ionizing radiation in the environment. The levels of exposure are dependent on the geology of the location and man’s activities. The use of building materials have been observed to raise the radiation dose to the environment since they are manufactured mostly from raw materials extracted from underground of the earth. This study was therefore set up to evaluate the effective doses absorbed by personnel in building materials shops in Calabar in order to ascertain if the personnel could suffer radiological health risk. Building materials shops which contained cement, tiles, timber, PVC ceiling, asbestos ceiling, paints, water closets, bath top, or wash hand basins were considered for this study. Effective dose measurements were carried out in building materials shops in Calabar to ascertain the possible radiological effects on the personnel manning the shops. Effective dose values ranging from 0.21 mSv/yr to 0.39 mSv/yr were obtained for the different building materials. These effective dose values were generally less than 1 mSv/yr, which is the public dose limit. It is therefore concluded that the personnel in the shop were exposed to insignificant level of radiological risk.