Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Radiation and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1539957
This article is part of the Research Topic Radon and Related Health Effects: From Exposure to Risk Assessment and Policies View all 5 articles

Radon exhalation rate and natural radioactivity in the building materials used in Metropolitan Jakarta and its surrounding, Indonesia

Provisionally accepted
Eka Djatnika Nugraha Eka Djatnika Nugraha 1*Modibo Oumar Bobbo Modibo Oumar Bobbo 1Wahyudi Wahyudi Wahyudi Wahyudi 1Radhia Pradana Radhia Pradana 1,2Rima Agustin Merdekawati Rima Agustin Merdekawati 1Kartini Megagasri Kartini Megagasri 1Abdussalam Topandi Abdussalam Topandi 3Agus Nur Rachman Agus Nur Rachman 1Rusbani Kurniawan Rusbani Kurniawan 1Evans Azka Fajrianshah Evans Azka Fajrianshah 1Nurahmah Hidayati Nurahmah Hidayati 1Ilma Dwi Winarni Ilma Dwi Winarni 1Ilsa Rosianna Ilsa Rosianna 1,2Leons Rixson Leons Rixson 1Dikdik Sidik Purnama Dikdik Sidik Purnama 1Heru Prasetio Heru Prasetio 1Shinji Tokonami Shinji Tokonami 4
  • 1 National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Bogor, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 2 Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan
  • 3 5 Polymer Chemical Engineering, Polytechnic STMI of Jakarta, Jakarta 12000, Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 4 Institute of Radiation Emergency Medicine, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki city, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Building a safe living environment requires using healthy and sustainable building materials. Humans are exposed to natural radionuclides in building materials such as 226Ra, 232Th decay series, and 40K, which pose a radiological hazard. The present study aims to investigate the radionuclides content of building materials used in Jakarta and its surrounding area. The computer code RESRAD-BUILD was used to calculate the annual effective dose received by an adult individual living in a typical room built using the studied building materials. Various samples such as sand, cement, bricks, and Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) were collected. The 222Rn surface exhalation rate was determined using the closed chamber method using RAD7, while the concentration of natural radionuclide activity was measured using a gamma spectrometer. The 222Rn surface exhalation rate ranges from 4 × 10-2 to 1.6 × 100 mBq m-2 s-1 with an average of 4 × 10-1 mBq m-2 s-1. The average 222Rn exhalation rate of the building materials studied was much lower than the world average value of 1.6 × 101 mBq m-2 s-1. The average activity concentration values of 232Th (21 Bq kg-1) and 40K (217 Bq kg-1) in all building materials studied are lower than the world average values of 45 Bq kg-1 and 412 Bq kg-1. In comparison, the average value of the activity concentration of 226Ra (34 Bq kg-1) is close to the world average value of 32 Bq kg-1. Furthermore, the assessed radiological hazard from the measured building material has an average activity index of 0.3, while the RESRAD-BUILD estimated total annual effective dose for a typical house constructed using a mixture of the building materials was 0.11 mSv, in which indoor 222Rn alone represents 92% of the total. From the assessment results, the building materials in Jakarta and its surrounding area do not pose significant concerns from the perspective of radiological hazards. However, the higher contribution of 222Rn suggests the need to conduct a large-scale indoor 222Rn survey in the study area.

    Keywords: Building material, natural radioactivity, Radon, Resrad-Build, effective dose, Exhalation rate

    Received: 05 Dec 2024; Accepted: 30 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Nugraha, Oumar Bobbo, Wahyudi, Pradana, Merdekawati, Megagasri, Topandi, Rachman, Kurniawan, Fajrianshah, Hidayati, Winarni, Rosianna, Rixson, Purnama, Prasetio and Tokonami. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Eka Djatnika Nugraha, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Bogor, 10340, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.