Multivariate statistical assessment of natural radioactivity and radiological hazards data of cement building materials mainly used in Cameroon

peer reviewedThe present study aimed to assess radioactivity level in thirty cement samples from five main cement types manufactured and commonly used in Cameroon using a gamma-ray spectrometric technique based-Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe-6530 model) Canberra coaxial detector. The activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th, and 40 K in cement samples varied from 9.49 to 33.24, 15.54 to 48.15, and 60.78 to 285.7 Bq kg− 1, respectively. Radiological parameters and hazard indexes such as the Radium equivalent activity, the outdoor and indoor absorbed gamma dose rate, the outdoor and indoor annual effective dose, the outdoor and indoor excess lifetime cancer risk, the annual gonadal dose equivalent, the activity utilization index, the representative level index, the external and internal hazard indexes, and the gamma and alpha indexes were assessed and compared with the recommended standard