The naturally occurring radioactivity of 'scalar energy' pendants and concomitant radiation risk

Halmat Jalal Hassan; Suhairul Hashim; Mohamad Syazwan Mohd Sanusi; Mohamad Hidayat Jamal; Sitti Asmah Hassan; David Andrew Bradley; Rafael García-Tenorio; Rozman Mohd Tahar

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0250528

The naturally occurring radioactivity of 'scalar energy' pendants and concomitant radiation risk

PLoS One. 2021 Jun 1;16(6):e0250528. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250528. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
² Department of Physics, College of Education, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Kurdistan, Iraq.
³ Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (ISISIR), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
⁴ Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
⁵ Centre for Applied Physics and Radiation Technologies, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guilford, United Kingdom.
⁷ Department of Applied Physics II, ETSA, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
⁸ Centro Nacional de Aceleradores, CNA, University of Seville-J. Andalucía-CSIC, Seville, Spain.
⁹ Atomic Energy Licensing Board, Dengkil, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract

Forming part of a study of radiological risk arising from use of radioactive consumer products, investigation is made of pendants containing naturally occurring radioactive material. Based on use of gamma-ray spectrometry and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, the study investigates commercially available 'scalar energy pendants'. The doses from these have been simulated using MIRD5 mathematical phantoms, evaluation being made of dose conversion factors (DCFs) and organ dose. Metallic pendants code MP15 were found to contain the greatest activity, at 7043 ± 471 Bq from 232Th, while glass pendants code GP11 were presented the greatest 238U and 40K activity, at 1001 ± 172 and 687 ± 130 Bq respectively. MP15 pendants offered the greatest percentage concentrations of Th, Ce, U and Zr, with means of 25.6 ± 0.06, 5.6 ± 0.005, 1.03 ± 0.04 and 28.5 ± 0.08 respectively, giving rise to an effective dose of 2.8 mSv for a nominal wearing period of 2000 h. Accordingly, these products can give rise to annual doses in excess of the public limit of 1 mSv.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Construction Materials*
Monte Carlo Method
Phantoms, Imaging
Radiation Dosage
Radioactivity
Spectrometry, Gamma

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) of Malaysia using Kumpulan Wang Amanah (KWA) Majlis Sains dan Penyelidikan Kebangsaan (MSPK). The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia through UTM High Impact Research Grant (No. 09G08). We acknowledge the cooperation with the project partners i.e., International Atomic Energy Agency and Atomic Energy Licensing Board, Malaysia for expert mission and procurement support through IAEA TC programme (MAL9018: Strengthening the Regulatory Infrastructure for Radiation and Nuclear Safety).