Occupational Hazards due to Natural Radioactivity and Heavy Metals in Some Industries

In this work, investigations and analyses were carried out to evaluate workers’ hazards exposure level due to radiological impacts and heavy metal content in granite and cement factories. Based on these evaluations, the hazardous exposure level assessment was conducted through two stages. The first stage includes the evaluation of the radiological hazards via the quantification of multiple parameters: the internal hazard due to radon and its short-lived progeny (represented by its internal and external hazard indices ( H in ) and ( H ex ) respectively), the gamma exposure due to the levels of 226 Ra, 232 Th, and 40 K, radium equivalent activity (Ra eq ), the Absorbed gamma dose ( D ) of granite and cement powder which were distributed homogeneously in the working area, the annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) due to gamma radiation through a working time 2000 hours/year, committed effective dose (CED) due to the ingestion and inhalation of dust containing naturally radionuclides, excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) due to the exposure to 226 Ra, 232 Th, and 40 K, the index of excess alpha radiation ( I α ), representative level index (RLI), and the effective organ doses due to dispersion of cement and granite dust in air ( D A ) and on the ground ( E ). The second stage involves the hazardous assessment due to exposure to heavy metal elements. The elemental analysis was performed by using inductively coupled plasma optical emissions spectroscopy (ICP-OES). In this assessment, several elements such as copper, lead, arsenic, nickel, chromium, zinc and cadmium were determined and used to calculate the carcinogenic hazard quotient as well as the total hazard index. Additionally, a discussion and interpretation of the results was given and tabulated.