Natural Radionuclides in Bottled Drinking Water in Jordan and their Committed Effective Doses

Abstract

Natural radioactivity in bottled drinking water marketed in Jordan was measured. High purity germanium (HPGe) spectrometer system coupled to a PC was used to analyze the obtained gamma-ray spectra. The activity in Bq/l for each of eighteen samples of bottled
drinking water and one drinking tap water was obtained and corrected for efficiency and background. For example, we found that the maximum measured activity of ²²⁶Ra was 5.5Bq/l. Gross alpha and beta activities were also estimated from the isotopes identified in the samples. Concentrations of isotopes and their parent nuclides were calculated in g/l. For example, the concentrations were in the range of 0 mg/l to 0.103 mg/l for ⁴⁰K. The committed effective dose due to ingestion of radionuclide from the consumption of bottled waters for adults and children were estimated. The range was found to be 1.9 mSv/y for children and 1.7 mSv/y for adults. No artificial or fission products were detected in any one of the samples.

Keywords: HPGe, Bottled water, Radioactivity, Concentration, Effective dose.