Radioactivity Concentrations in Spa Waters - Dose Assessment

Abstract

In this study 6 different spa water samples from Serbia, Hungary and Czech Republic were investigated in order to determine their radioactivity concentrations. These waters have been used on a large scale for medical and bathing purposes; for therapy, rehabilitation and recreation and also used for drinking, which is the most important. The obtained results showed that natural activity concentrations of alpha emitting radionuclides was within World Health Organization recommended levels and Serbian applicable regulations, but the gross beta activity exceed 1 Bq L-1 for some of the samples. Considering the fact that gross beta activity in four samples was higher than recommended levels, gamma spectrometric measurements were performed, in order to identify radionuclides which caused increase of the gross beta activity. It was found that K-40 was responsible for the elevated gross beta activity. Based on the obtained results the annual effective dose was calculated.