Environmental assessment of radon in bottled drinking water for children in Iraq and associated annual radiation dose

The radiological quality of bottled drinking water represents an important environmental issue, especially in arid regions where bottled water is a major source of daily water consumption. This study presents the radon levels in bottled water consumed by children in Iraq to estimate the annual effective dose for different age sets. Seventeen bottled water samples were collected from the Iraqi markets and analyzed for radon using RAD7 Detector with closed-loop aeration system which was carried out to accurately measure dissolved radon. The radon concentrations in the 4 different types of bottled water ranged from 0.0166 to 0.379 Bq/L, with an average value of 0.1888 ± 0.0137 Bq/L, which is much lower than the alternative MCL recommended by United States Environmental Protection Agency (11.1 Bq/L). Calculated annual effective doses differed between age groups including a mean value of 0.86 µSv/year for infants (3 months), 0.29 µSv/year at 1 year, 0.33 µSv/year at the age of 5 years, and a mean value of 0.39 µSv/year with advanced to that of an age group at the age of 10 years The findings confirm that younger age classes are given relatively higher doses, especially for infants, which may be attributed to increased sensitivity and physiological factors. However, all estimated doses are many times lower than the recommended safety limit of 1000 µSv/year. radon levels in the bottled water consumed by children in Iraq are low and do not represent any significant radiological health risk. The results confirm the safety of these water sources in terms of human consumption across all age-groups, including the most vulnerable populations.