Assessment of natural radioactivity in various commercial tiles used for building purposes in Nigeria

In this study,we evaluated the activity concentration of natural radionuclides(226Ra, 232Th and 40K) for fifteen (15)differentbrandsoftilesamplesusedforbuildingpurposesinNigeria.Thetilesampleswereanalyzedusing High purityGermaniumgammadetector.Themeanactivityconcentrationsof 226Ra, 232Th, and 40Kwereobserved to be61.1 �5.5 Bq/kg,70.2� 6.08 Bq/kgand514.7 � 59.8 Bq/kgrespectively.Varioushazardindicessuchas absorbed doserate,external and internal hazardindex,annual effectivedoserate,Gamma activityIndex(Ig) and Alpha Index(Ia) werecalculated.The obtained resultsshowedthatthemeanradiumequivalentactivity(Raeq), the absorbeddoserate(D),external andinternalhazardindex,the annualeffectivedose(AEDR)equivalent, Gamma activityIndex(Ig) andAlphaIndex(Ia) were:204.42Bq/kg,177.61nGyh�1, 0.55,0.77,0.96mSvyr�1, 0.74and0.32respectively.Theaveragevalueofradiumequivalentobtainedinthisstudyislessthanthatofth