Article Sidebar
Published:
Jul 29, 2024Keywords:
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Open access articles published in the Journal of Agriculture, Science and Technology are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) License which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The CC BY license permits commercial and non-commercial re-use of an open-access article, as long as the author is properly attributed.
Copyright on any research article published in the Journal of Agriculture, Science and Technology is retained by the author(s). The authors grant the Journal of Agriculture, Science and Technology with a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
Use of the article in whole or in part in any medium requires proper citation as follows:
Title of Article, Names of the Author, Year of Publication, Journal Title, Volume (Issue) and page. Links to the final article on the JSRE website are encouraged.
The Creative Commons Attribution License does not affect any other rights held by authors or third parties in the article, including without limitation the rights of privacy and publicity. Use of the article must not assert or imply, whether implicitly or explicitly, any connection with, endorsement or sponsorship of such use by the author, publisher or any other party associated with the article.
For any reuse or distribution, users must include the copyright notice and make clear to others that the article is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution license, linking to the relevant Creative Commons web page. Users may impose no restrictions on the use of the article other than those imposed by the Creative Commons Attribution license.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the article is made available as is and without representation or warranties of any kind whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise and including, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors.
Main Article Content
Naturally occurring radioactive materials and their activity levels in “machine-cut stone” quarries in Juja Sub County, Kiambu County, Kenya
Abstract
Naturally occurring radioactive materials and their activity levels among “machine-cut stone handlers in selected” quarries in Juja Subcounty, Kiambu County, Kenya,". Radiation occurs naturally in the environment; levels depend on the occurrence of natural radionuclide. Open cast mining exposes the radionuclides hidden deep in the earth. Radionuclides in quarry products are of concern especially in construction materials. The main objective was to determine the occurrence and activities of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM); 232Th, 238U and 40K in “Machine cut stone handlers in selected” quarries in Kiambu County. The subjects were recruited randomly from the selected quarries and samples obtained from the study sites. The sampling frame was developed from the list of all quarries in Kiambu. The quarries that met the selection criteria were randomly selected from the list of all quarries in Kiambu. Data was collected until the level of saturation was achieved. Samples of quarry dust were collected from the selected 25 quarries in Juja sub-county which process rock into machine cut stones for construction of houses. The quarry dust samples were collected from the topmost points and the bottom (deepest) parts of the quarries. Quantitative data was collected in questionnaires coded cleaned and entered in Microsoft Access and exported in SPSS Version 23.0 for analysis. Composite samples were crushed into powder and passed under sieves to give a consistent homogeneous powder. NORM activity concentrations were determined using Gamma spectroscopy employing the SpectraLineGP software recorded as Becquerel per Kilogram (BqKg). The active quarries ranged between 6-24 months with most having been in operation for a period of 24 months. The quarries-based om meters above sea level were in the range of 1466 – 1531 masl with a mean of 1494.88±13.88 masl. The NORM Activity concentrations of 232Th, 238U and 40K were determined in Quarry dust in Bq/kg with slight variations between the sites. The order of the radioisotopes in ascending order was 40K> 232Th>238U. The range of the means were 71.1 – 152.2 for 232Th, 40.5 -107.4 for 238U whereas that of 40K was in the range of 763.8 – 1661.2 Bq/Kg. The study revealed that stones from some of the quarries studied had risk of exposure to occupants of machine cutting had 2 odds of risks from quarry dust due to failure to use personal protective equipment’s 0.05). The houses had low risk (to ionizing radiations p value >0.05 at 95% Confidence interval).
