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189538

Background Radiation Survey at Major Dumpsites in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Article

Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

Subjects

-

Tags

Radiation

Abstract

Dumpsites in Freetown the capital city of Sierra Leone have become major areas for urban agriculture. Moreover, many youths in communities around dumpsites scavenge various materials including scrap metals and sachet plastics from the dumpsites on a daily basis for survival. The two notable dumpsites, Kingtom and Granville Brooke dumpsites are open dumpsites that accommodate all types of mixed solid wastes some of which may emit or have the potential to emit radiation. In-situ measurement of the radiation dose rate was conducted on the two sites using a portable Radiagem survey meter and a Geographical Positioning System (GPS). Ten (10) measurements were made for each dumpsite. The result of the radiation measurements showed that the mean equivalent dose rate for the Kingtom and Granville Brooke dumpsites are 0.8 mSvy^(-1) and 1.1 mSvy^(-1) respectively. These values revealed that the Kingtom dumpsite has slightly higher value than the permissible limits of United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) and lower than the permissible limits of International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP); whereas for the Granville Brooke dumpsite the mean equivalent dose rate is higher than both the permissible limits set by UNSCEAR and ICRP. It is therefore justifiable to conclude that both dumpsites, Kingtom and Granville Brooke could be unsafe in the near future from the cumulative effect of radiation exposure for workers, scavengers and other individuals exposed to loads of wastes in the dumpsites

DOI

10.21608/jntas.2021.75841.1038

Keywords

Dose rate, Dumpsites, exposure, Radiation, Scavenger

Authors

First Name

Anthony

Last Name

Kamara

MiddleName

Joseph

Affiliation

Department of Physics, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Email

chieftonyit1983@gmail.com

City

Freetown

Orcid

0000-0002-6345-6895

First Name

Foday

Last Name

Thullah

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Email

fodaythullah@yahoo.com

City

Freetown

Orcid

-

Volume

9

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

21085

Issue Date

2021-01-01

Receive Date

2021-05-09

Publish Date

2021-01-01

Page Start

47

Page End

52

Print ISSN

2314-8209

Online ISSN

2314-8217

Link

https://jntas.journals.ekb.eg/article_189538.html

Detail API

https://jntas.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=189538

Order

5

Type

Original Article

Type Code

632

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of Nuclear Technology in Applied Science

Publication Link

https://jntas.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

-

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023