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Abstrakt

Assessments of environmental radioactivity level in St. Luke’s hospital, Anua-Uyo

Esen Nsikan U., Ituen Eno E., Ekeso Daniel S. and Etuk Sunday E.

This research work investigated and presents the level of ionizing radiation in St. Luke’s Hospital Anua, Uyo. Inspector Alert Nuclear Radiation Meter (Manufactured by International Medcom with Model No. 33333) was used for these assessments. The meter was held at the abdominal level (about 1m above ground level) and readings were taken in μSvhr-1 at different locations of the hospital and conversion factors were used to convert results into mSvyr- 1. The result obtained shows that health workers in the Old Reagent Room (ORR) are exposed to radiation level of (0.5172±0.0062)mSvyr-1 equivalent dose rate, higher than that of unidentified reagent and it has a very high annual equivalent dose rate of (24.0937±0.5622)mSvyr-1. This is an issue of great concern since the value is greater than 1mSvyr-1 as stipulated by ICRP. The available data in the hospital gives a mean dose rate of (0.1673±0.0028)mSvyr- 1 except the waste bin data. Though these people (except those at reagent laboratory) are exposed to ionising radiation due to radioactivity, the dose rate is far less than the required annual equivalent dose rate set by ICRP.