Radon measurements in water galleries in Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain)
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Radon measurements in water galleries in Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain) Juan C. Santamarta 1 & Luis E. Hernández-Gutiérrez 2 & Jesica Rodríguez-Martín 3 & Rayco Marrero Díaz 4 & Rafael J. Lario Bascones 5 & Ángel Morales González Moro 5 & Noelia Cruz-Pérez 1 Received: 21 April 2020 / Accepted: 20 July 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Water galleries are one of the main systems for capturing groundwater on the western islands of the Canary Islands (Spain). Water galleries are approximately 2-m high × 2-m wide excavated, sub-horizontal drains. This research focuses on taking measurements of radon, a natural radioactive gas present in volcanic territories, such as the Canary Islands, which may cause health problems for workers inside water galleries. The aim of the research is to evaluate radon gas activity as a natural risk in a selected group of water galleries of Tenerife by means of officially approved radon passive detector devices. It was observed that in all the galleries studied, the radon gas concentration values were exceeded by a wide margin, which makes it a factor to be monitored in gallery workers, due to the proven association between radon inhalation and lung cancer. Keywords Radon gas . Radiation . Groundwater . Health risk . Tenerife
Introduction Radon (Rn-222) is a natural radioactive noble gas from the uranium-238 disintegration chain and, therefore, almost ubiquitous in nature. This gas presents low levels in the open air but tends to accumulate in poorly ventilated spaces (Petter Jelle 2012). There can also be high concentrations in areas with permeable soils and/or with a high Ra content (Khan et al. 2012; Verma et al. 2012). Certain work activities such as underground mining or the exploitation of thermal waters can carry a significant health risk of exposure to this gas (Garcia-Talavera San Miguel et al. 2013).
* Juan C. Santamarta [email protected] 1
Departamento de Ingeniería Agraria, Náutica, Civil y Marítima, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), La Laguna, Tenerife, España
2
Consejería de Obras Públicas, Transportes y Vivienda. Gobierno de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
3
Departamento Técnicas y Proyectos en Ingeniería y Arquitectura, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), La Laguna, Tenerife, España
4
Tragsatec, Grupo Tragsa, Gerencia Planificación y Gestión Hídrica, Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
5
Servicio de Minas, Dirección General de Industria y Energía, Gobierno de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Several studies of radon in groundwater show that high radon activity occurs in uranium-bearing granite aquifers, and in magmatic and metamorphic bedrock aquifers (Telahigue et al. 2018). Another study in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil (Luiz do Carmo Leal et al. 2020), which analysed the spatial distribution of natural radionuclides, proved that radionuclide concentrations decreased in the following order: igneous > metamorphic > sedimentary, an occurrence that has also been verified in Italy (Cinti et al. 2019; Giustini et al. 2019) and Greece (Papadop
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