background: the exposure of human being to ionize radiation from natural sources is a continuing, inescapable feature of life on earth. direct measurement of absorbed dose rates in air has been carried out in many countries of the world during the last few decades. such investigations can be useful for assessment of public dose rates, the performance of epidemiological studies, and keeping refe...

[1] Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are bright, sub-millisecond bursts of gamma-rays, originating within the Earth’s atmosphere. Most TGFs have been detected by spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. Only two TGFs have previously been observed from within our atmosphere: one at ground level and one from an aircraft at 14.1 km. We report on a new TGF-like gamma-ray flash observed at ground level, d...

The Euganean Hills of North East Italy have long been recognised as an area characterized by a higher than average natural radiation background. This is due to two main reasons: a) primary lithogenic radiation due to rhyolitic and trachytic outcrops, which are “acidic alkaline” magmatic rocks potentially enriched in uranium and thorium; b) secondary sources related to a geothermal field – widel...

The Euganean Hills of North East Italy have long been recognised as an area characterized by a higher than average natural radiation background. This is due to two main reasons: a) primary lithogenic radiation due to rhyolitic and trachytic outcrops, which are "acidic alkaline" magmatic rocks potentially enriched in uranium and thorium; b) secondary sources related to a geothermal field - widel...

The Euganean Hills of North East Italy have long been recognised as an area characterized by a higher than average natural radiation background. This is due to two main reasons: a) primary lithogenic radiation due to rhyolitic and trachytic outcrops, which are “acidic alkaline” magmatic rocks potentially enriched in uranium and thorium; b) secondary sources related to a geothermal field – widel...

introduction iron ore is one of the most important natural raw materials that is widely used for manufacturing iron and steel. this type of ore contains various amounts of radionuclides; thus, exposing workers handling their extraction, transportation, and processing to radiation. materials and methods in this study, 12 ore samples (each mass weighing about 2 kg) were collected from the iron or...

During the last 15 years, about 2000 strains of 200 species of 98 genera of fungi have been isolated from around the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station. Many of these microfungi are capable of growing into and decomposing 'hot particles'; carbon based radioactive graphite from the reactor and there are suggestions that some fungi actively direct their growth toward sources of radioactivity, possib...

background: the activity concentrations of some radionuclides in soil samples collected from 20 locations in 8 major towns in oyo state, southwestern nigeria have been determined by gamma-ray spectrometry technique. materials and methods: the activity concentrations were determined using high-purity germanium (hpge) detector (canberra industries inc.). the outdoor absorbed dose rates in air at ...

Routine diagnostic X-rays (e.g., chest X-rays, mammograms, computed tomography scans) and routine diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures using sparsely ionizing radiation forms (e.g., beta and gamma radiations) stimulate the removal of precancerous neo-plastically transformed and other genomically unstable cells from the body (medical radiation hormesis). The indicated radiation hormesis arises...