Assessment of Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk from Background Ionizing Radiation at Aluu and Eliozu Dumpsites in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area

Abstract

Excess lifetime cancer risk refers to the likelihood of an individual developing cancer due to exposure to a particular carcinogenic agent. It is expressed as an additional increase in cancer incidence within an exposed population compared to what would normally be expected without such exposure. This study evaluates the excess lifetime cancer risk associated with background ionizing radiation in Aluu and Eliozu has been computed using equations of physics. The background ionizing radiation was measured using GMC300 detector the results obtained indicates that the background ionizing radiation varied from 0.101± 0.0052mR/h and overall values of 0.0133mR/h. Also, the background ionizing radiation measured from the Eliozu varied from 0.0113± 0.006 mR/h and overall value of 0.0133mR/h. The total average of background radiation of all the sample point in Aluu was 0.0133mR/h, while the total average for Eliozu was 0.0133mR/h these values indicates that these measured values were within the acceptable limits of 0.013mR/h. These calculated values for absorbed dose, the annual effective dose rate was observed to fall within the acceptable limit of 89.0 nGy/hr, while the annual effective dose remained slightly below the recommended threshold of 1.0. However, the excess lifetime cancer risk exceeded the permissible value of 0.29 × 10⁻³. Furthermore, the calculated absorbed dose for Eliozu was marginally above the safe limit of 89.0 nGy/hr, although its annual effective dose was still slightly below the recommended value of 1.0. The excess lifetime cancer risk was determined to be 0.52 × 10⁻³ ± 0.03 × 10⁻³, which is higher than the acceptable safety limit of 0.29 x 10-3.  These values shows that people living in these sample locations may be exposed to danger of exposure to background lionizing radiation which is likely to cause cancer. However, there is presently no health challenge of cancer due to exposure to radiation within the sample location.