Indoor and Outdoor Effective doses from Background Ionizing Radiation in Private Medical Diagnostic Centers in Bori, Rivers State

Humans are exposed to radiation that is everywhere in the environment without their knowledge and the exposure to natural background radiation is an unavoidable event on earth. An in situ measurement of the indoor and outdoor background ionizing radiation in Life hospital and Rayfield diagnostic center, Bori of Rivers State, Nigeria was carried out using two radiation meters. Each of these hospitals was divided into 10 sampling points where five readings were taken in order to have a reliable data. The mean indoor and outdoor annual effective dose of Life hospital were 0.93± 0.13mSv/yr and 0.23±0.01 mSv/yr respectively; and that of Rayfield diagnostic center were 1.22± 0.10mSv/yr and 0.26±0.02 mSv/yr respectively. The radiation levels in both hospitals were found to be slightly higher than the safe limit. The reduction coefficient calculated from the dose equivalent exceeded the limit of 1.5 at x-ray rooms of the two hospitals. These results of in-situ indoor and outdoor background radiation of the two hospitals in Bori show that the radiological operations did enhance the natural background radiation of the area. Therefore no immediate health hazard associated with radiation exposure in the area is expected but long term exposure could lead to radiation induced sickness and the result would serve as a baseline data for the study area. Keywords: Indoor, outdoor, background radiation, effective dose, reduction coefficient, Bori