Health Assessment Based On the Exposure of Alpha Radioactivity in Narghile Smoking

Introduction: Smokers and non-smokers are at the risk of developing lung cancer when exposed to alpha rays as a result of the relatively low levels of radium and radon that may be present in different tobacco species. There is a great interest in studies and research on the radionuclides in narghile tobacco emitting alpha particles to know the relationship between smoking narghile and cancer, especially lung cancer. Material and Methods: This study was conducted to measure the alpha rays in 30 different narghile samples in the markets of Iraq. Radon concentrations were determined using time-tested passive radio doses containing CR-39 solid-state pathway detectors. Results: The radon concentrations in samples varied from27.44±4.4 Bq/m3 to 214.61±18.1 Bq/m3 with the mean value of 65.60±41.04 Bq/m3. The annual effective dose varies from 0.69±0.09 mSv/y to 5.41±2.20 mSv/y with the mean value of 1.64±1.03 mSv/y. The lung cancer risk cases per year vary from 12.46±2.11 to 97.45±7.34 with the mean value of 29.77±18.63 per million people. The effective radium content ranged between 0.054Bq/kg and 0.425Bq/kg with the mean value of 0.131 of Bq/kg, while the radon emission values for the mass and surface units ranged from 0.410 to 3.212 with the mean of 0.996 mBq/kg.h and 9.040 to 70.703 with the mean value of 21.943mBq/m2.h, respectively. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that alpha rays are within the internationally accepted limits and presently do not pose a threat to human health and life in terms of the radiation activity of the investigated narghile tobacco species in this study.