RE: Ramsar, Iran - A.Karam & Z.Jaworowski

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>]

Thanks Andrew for sharing with us your experience of the visit to Ramsar,
Iran.

As you are still unpacking, chances are you may have missed an interesting,
related item in the RADSAFE posting by Jim Muckerheide on Wednesday November
01, 2000 4:56 PM.

Jim posted a link to Dr. Zbigniew Jaworowski's paper, IONIZING RADIATION AND
RADIOACTIVITY IN THE 20TH CENTURY,
 for the Tehran Conference, at:
http://cnts.wpi.edu/RSH/Docs/Zbigniew_Jaworowski_Iran_2000.htm

In it, Jaworowski writes :

<BEGIN QUOTE>
 In some parts of Ramsar people are living in houses where the annual
radiation dose is up to about 700 mGy , what is similar to the value of the
tolerance dose from the 1920s, and corresponds to a lifetime dose of about
50 Gy. In the area of Ramsar people are exposed to so high radiation levels
since several generations. The cytogenetic studies have shown differences
between these people and the controls, but incidence of cancers and leukemia
was not increased.
Compared with the apparently non-harmful annual doses in the high natural
radiation areas, the average doses received by the global population from
man-made sources seem to be of no importance. 
<END QUOTE>

Comment: 
The readings you report appear to indicate annual & lifetime doses somewhat
lower than the above numbers - based on very simplistic assumptions, and
ignoring the lung dose from the Radon....  Still, they seem to be roughly in
the same ball park (sorry, I'm not an HP - please enlighten me).
Just out of curiosity - did you two happen to meet up at the Tehran
conference or the Ramsar visit ?
Looking forward to your write-up.
Thanks.

Jaro
frantaj@aecl.ca  

From: Karam, Andrew [mailto:Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu]
Sent: Tuesday October 31, 2000 1:26 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Ramsar, Iran

I just returned from a conference in Tehran in which, on the day following
the meeting, we visited the very high background radiation area in Ramsar.
It's safe to say that, had I not been present, I would have doubted some of
the radiation levels we saw.  About a dozen people from the conference were
present, in addition to several representatives from the Iranian equivalent
of the NRC.

The area itself is underlain by igneous rocks that are apparently rich in
NORM.  Hot springs abound, and the hot water dissolves Ra-226 from the
rocks, depositing it in travertine (a calcium carbonate mineral) at and near
the surface.  Some of the local houses are constructed from this stone, too,
exposing them to higher concentrations of radon as well as elevated
radiation levels.

We took survey meters with us and measured general area levels outside that
ranged from "normal" background to about 1 mr/hr (this is from memory - I
haven't unpacked my notes yet).  The radiation levels were very
heterogeneous, and it's not really possible to give a "typical" or "average"
level.  Inside one house we visited, some sections of the wall read up to
about 14 mr/hr on contact with the wall, the general area readings were
about 1 mr/hr, and the spot on the floor where the couple slept (this was in
their bedroom) was about 2.2 mr/hr.  The couple living in this house are in
their 60s and appear to be in good health.  Radon levels in this room at the
time we were present were about 35 pCi/l (over 1000 bq/m^3) and we were told
that, with windows closed, they are typically several times higher than
this.  I took photos of the displays on both of the dose rate instruments
used as well as the radon monitor and we were told the instruments were
properly calibrated and were working correctly.
<SNIP>
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