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Abstracto

A survey of environmental radioactivity level in laboratories of the town Campus University, Uyo Niger Delta region

Esen N. U., Ituen E. E., Etuk S. E. and Nwokolo S. C.

The UNSCEAR [1] observed that there could be some exposure at work which would require regulatory control but is not really considered. This study was, then, set up to evaluate the annual effective dose equivalent of 25 Laboratories in Town Campus of University of Uyo, Nigeria and to determine if the evaluated dose levels could lead to any radiological health effect in the workers, and also to determine if the laboratories require regulatory control. The radiation exposure at the laboratories measured using Inspector alert surveying meter were converted to effective dose and compared with the public and occupational values. From the results, the effective dose equivalent were moderately low varying from 0.128±0.041mSv/yr to 0.309±0.049mSv/yr with mean value of 0.2294±0.0465 except in pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory store room (SA25) where higher value of 1.015±0.09mS/yr was recorded. The evaluated effective dose values in the laboratories were below public and occupational exposure safe limits and may not necessarily result in any radiological health hazard.