Staff View: Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts

Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts

Continuous depletion in tin productions has led to a newly emerging industry that is a tin by-product (amang) processing industry to harness mega tons of tin by-products produced in the past. Amang composed of profitable multi-heavy minerals and rare-earth elements. With poorly established safety an...

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Main Authors:	Sanusi, M. S. M., Ramli, A. T., Hashim, S., Lee, M. H.
Format:	Article
Published:	Academic Press 2021
Subjects:	QC Physics
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/94718/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111727
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id	my.utm.94718
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spelling	my.utm.947182022-05-31T12:37:26Z http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/94718/ Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts Sanusi, M. S. M. Ramli, A. T. Hashim, S. Lee, M. H. QC Physics Continuous depletion in tin productions has led to a newly emerging industry that is a tin by-product (amang) processing industry to harness mega tons of tin by-products produced in the past. Amang composed of profitable multi-heavy minerals and rare-earth elements. With poorly established safety and health practices in operating plant, amang poses extremely high radioactivity problem associated with high occupational ionizing radiation exposures to workers and continuously impacting the local environment with radioactive contamination from industrial effluent and solid waste into lithosphere and water bodies. The radioactivity level of 238U and 232Th series in the mineral varies from few hundreds up to - 200,000 and - 400,000 Bq kg–1 respectively and are potential to yield more than ~ 30,000 nGy h–1 of gamma (?) radiation exposure to plant workers. The study found out that for 8 h of work time, a worker is estimated to receive an average effective dose of 0.1 mSv per day from external ? radiation source with a maximum up to 2 mSv per day for extreme exposure situation. Interferences of different exposure routes for examples inhalation of equivalent equilibrium concentration (ECC) of 222Rn and 220Rn progenies and airborne long-lived a particles from the dusty working environment could pose a higher total effective dose as much as 5 mSv per day and 115 mSv per year. The value is 5 times higher than the annual dose limit for designated radiation worker (20 mSv) in Peninsular Malaysia. The study found that 41% of the total received an effective dose received by a worker is contributed by 222Rn, 32% of airborne particulates and dust, 23% from external ? exposure and 4% from 220Rn. Based on radioecological risk assessment, the study found out that the aquatic environment is the highly exposed group to ionizing radiation from industrial effluent discharge and sand residues. With the impotent establishment of radiation protection in the industry, plus the country newly introduced long-term plan to revive tin mining as well as its accessory amang mineral, it is necessary for the government to harmonize current regulation to improve the worker safety and health as well as sustaining local environment. Academic Press 2021 Article PeerReviewed Sanusi, M. S. M. and Ramli, A. T. and Hashim, S. and Lee, M. H. (2021) Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 208 . p. 111727. ISSN 0147-6513 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111727
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building	UTM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source	UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.utm.my/
topic	QC Physics
spellingShingle	QC Physics Sanusi, M. S. M. Ramli, A. T. Hashim, S. Lee, M. H. Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts
description	Continuous depletion in tin productions has led to a newly emerging industry that is a tin by-product (amang) processing industry to harness mega tons of tin by-products produced in the past. Amang composed of profitable multi-heavy minerals and rare-earth elements. With poorly established safety and health practices in operating plant, amang poses extremely high radioactivity problem associated with high occupational ionizing radiation exposures to workers and continuously impacting the local environment with radioactive contamination from industrial effluent and solid waste into lithosphere and water bodies. The radioactivity level of 238U and 232Th series in the mineral varies from few hundreds up to - 200,000 and - 400,000 Bq kg–1 respectively and are potential to yield more than ~ 30,000 nGy h–1 of gamma (?) radiation exposure to plant workers. The study found out that for 8 h of work time, a worker is estimated to receive an average effective dose of 0.1 mSv per day from external ? radiation source with a maximum up to 2 mSv per day for extreme exposure situation. Interferences of different exposure routes for examples inhalation of equivalent equilibrium concentration (ECC) of 222Rn and 220Rn progenies and airborne long-lived a particles from the dusty working environment could pose a higher total effective dose as much as 5 mSv per day and 115 mSv per year. The value is 5 times higher than the annual dose limit for designated radiation worker (20 mSv) in Peninsular Malaysia. The study found that 41% of the total received an effective dose received by a worker is contributed by 222Rn, 32% of airborne particulates and dust, 23% from external ? exposure and 4% from 220Rn. Based on radioecological risk assessment, the study found out that the aquatic environment is the highly exposed group to ionizing radiation from industrial effluent discharge and sand residues. With the impotent establishment of radiation protection in the industry, plus the country newly introduced long-term plan to revive tin mining as well as its accessory amang mineral, it is necessary for the government to harmonize current regulation to improve the worker safety and health as well as sustaining local environment.
format	Article
author	Sanusi, M. S. M. Ramli, A. T. Hashim, S. Lee, M. H.
author_facet	Sanusi, M. S. M. Ramli, A. T. Hashim, S. Lee, M. H.
author_sort	Sanusi, M. S. M.
title	Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts
title_short	Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts
title_full	Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts
title_fullStr	Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts
title_full_unstemmed	Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts
title_sort	radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in peninsular malaysia and its environmental impacts
publisher	Academic Press
publishDate	2021
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/94718/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111727
_version_	1735386797118062592
score	13.211869

Radiological hazard associated with amang processing industry in Peninsular Malaysia and its environmental impacts

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