High Background Radiation Levels Found In Koh Phangan

[koheesti]

Just did a sample of my landlord's (next door) house lower floor: 142 CPM (7-9x US avg) averaged over 10 minutes.

Is this floor level on the ground, or floor level on stilts? If it is ground level, what is the stilt-floor CPM?

[Tropicalevo]

Sorry - but is there any point in knowing that someone's granite tiles are more likely (statistically) to cause death from radiation than the next person's tiles?

Are there are some tongue in cheek posts here to wind someone up?

OK - so in some houses on KPN there is a higher level of radiation than in other houses. So what? I would bet you one baht that none of you will die from radiation poisoning.

With all of the problems that this great country has, and with all of the issues that need fixing, where does this fit in the scale of things?

[DavidMavec]

Jose 1 - Bungalowbob 0

haha, was about to say the same thing

+1, bungalowbob = what a loser

[Jose]

Took a background radiation environmental survey around part of SouthWest KPG today. Measurements were done on the fly in a slow-moving car (about 1m above ground level), so most results are probably +/-20% average approximations of static 10-min samples.

Thongsala (old Chinese town): 20-36 CPM

Flat back roads between Bantai and Madeua Ban: 30-70 CPM

Older landfill quarry near Phaeng waterfall: 120-180 CPM, rock face 220-245 CPM

New dirt roads at the back of Bantai: 70-100 CPM

One year old landfill quarry on the Bantai hills behind Wat Kow Tham: 210-280 CPM

Same quarry rock-face (ground) samples: 300-472 CPM

To put this last background radiation figure (x24 US avg) into some perspective, assuming that 472 CPM on my Geiger counter converts to approx 0.15 mR/hr and a typical chest x-ray is 10 mRem, sitting on that rock would then expose one to the equivalent radiation dose of having five chest x-rays a year. If that radiation was internalized by the body through dust or Radon gas inhalation, then according to some estimates one would have to sit around this rock for 14 years in order to receive a dose that could lead to the earliest onset of radiation sickness.

Conclusion

Igneous rocks in KPG have naturally occurring high levels of radiation. The hillside clay around these rocks also contain higher than normal levels of background radiation.

The relatively-new process (presumably begun around 20-30 years ago) of filling low flat flood-prone land areas with excavated landfill, has spread the higher background radiation from KPG's hillsides to its coastal areas. Dust inhalation and long-term exposure to the background radiation may be specially dangerous to infants. Furthermore, background radiation levels are not evenly distributed in the environment, so there are additional dangers of excavating and living on "hotter" than average landfill.

[Jose]

At someone's suggestion I've just checked two of the concrete block walls in our house - avg 120-150 CPM (0.36-0.45 mR/hr).

This would be the equivalent of 1.2-1.5 chest x-rays a year.

Moving the Geiger counter at least 1-2m away from the walls and cement/tile floors, brings background radiation levels to around 50-60 CPM (0.15-0.18 mR/hr).

It seems that the sand used in the cement blocks may also come from (Suratthani?) a source with high background radiation levels.

[Jose]

One year old landfill quarry on the Bantai hills behind Wat Kow Tham: 210-280 CPM

Same quarry rock-face (ground) samples: 300 - 472 CPM

472 CPM = 1.4 µSv/hr

The hourly background radiation dose in the city of Fukushima is 1.6 µSv/h