Resumen
Introduction: Atmospheric air is directly related to human health and irreplaceable to human life and thus an influential parameter of environmental science. Radioactive materials in the air may result in exposure of man every day of our lives by inhalation or ingestion of particulate matter suspended or deposited on vegetation or products derived from animals, which has been ubiquitous on earth since its creation. The main goal of this study is to measure the radioactivity concentration of the natural and artificial radionuclides of the Duhok air. Materials and Methods: Twenty samples of air filters were collected from different locations of Duhok City and its surroundings by low volume air samplers pump in the summer/autumn and winter/spring seasons. Air filter samples were prepared and analyzed by a well-type thallium-activated sodium iodide NaI(TI) detector. Results and Discussion: The average activity concentrations of 214Pb, 214Bi, 212Pb, 228Ac, 40K and 137Cs are 4.98±1.20, 4.54±1.27, 9.76±1.17, 10.72±2.35, 211.91±62.19 and 1.78±0.61 mBq/m3 respectively of the summer/autumn seasons. Whereas, in the winter/spring seasons are 3.89±1.23, 4.21±1.43, 5.05±1.08, ND, 147.49±46.38 and 1.78±0.69 mBq/m3 respectively. Conclusions: The activity concentrations results confirmed seasonal variations for all study locations. Activities of all radionuclides, except an anthropogenic radionuclide 137Cs which remains about the same in both seasons, record higher values in summer/autumn season. Moreover, all activities are less than the acceptable lower level. It is clear that the prominent radioelements that affected by the atmospheric condition is 40K even though it is less than the reported lower level of the EPA.