Author(s)

Humood Alshammari^1*, A. Algammidi¹, Ahmed Algammidi²

¹King Abdualziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
²Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The primary aim of this work was clearly to apply the norms of radiation protection to building residents against natural radioactivity. This was done through measurement of natural radioactivity in adhesive building materials using HPGe gamma ray spectrometer. The radium equivalent activity (Ra_eq), indoor gamma absorbed dose rate (D_R), and annual effective dose (H_R) associated with natural radioactivity were computed to assess the radiation hazards in adhesive building materials. The obtained specific activities of these natural radionuclides and the calculated radiation hazard indexes were compared with the international recommended values. The findings in this work of natural radioactivity levels were below the acceptable limits. Therefore, it was found the adhesive building materials were safe to be used as construction materials. Also, as a minor work, previous unpublished data of heavy metals in the same study adhesive materials were investigated by ICP-MS to figure out the correlation between heavy metal presence and natural radioactivity. The findings showed insignificant correlations between heavy metals and radioactivity.

Building Material, Radioactivity, Adhesives

Alshammari, H. , Algammidi, A. and Algammidi, A. (2017) The Experimental Gamma Radiation Dose Rate for Radiation Hazard into Adhesive Building Materials in Saudi Arabia. Open Journal of Radiology, 7, 272-291. doi: 10.4236/ojrad.2017.74030.