Occupational Hazards from Outdoor and Indoor Radiation in Oil Field Facilities in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the occupational hazards due to exposure to gamma radiations from oil and gas facilities. In-situ measurement of radiation exposure rate of some Oil Field Facilities in Rivers State, Nigeria  carried out using Digilert 200 and Radalert 100 nuclear radiation monitor and a geographical positioning system (Garmin GPSMAP 76S). The average exposure rates of the facilities range from 0.010±0.002 to 0.015±0.001, for indoor and 0.014±0.003 to 0.027±0.003  for outdoor. The mean absorbed dose rates for indoor varied from 92.1 to 121.1 nGyh-1 while the mean outdoor absorbed dose varied from 120.4 to 234.2 nGyh-1. The estimated indoor annual effective dose varied from 0.14 to 0.19 mSvy-1 while the outdoor annual effective dose varied from 0.23 to 0.36 m Svy-1.The estimated indoor excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) range from 0.56× to 0.65x10-3 and outdoor ranged from 0.65×5 to 1.26×. The respective mean values of absorbed dose, AEDE and ELCR for indoor and outdoor measurements at the different locations exceeded the world permissible values of 60, 70 and 0.29× respectively. The result of this work indicated that used oilfield pipe market recorded the highest exposure rate. This could be due to radiations from scales on the pipes and may pose health challenged for long term exposure.