Radiological Impact and Environmental Monitoring of Gamma Radiations Along the Public Beach of Port Said, Egypt

Port Said is an Egyptian coastal city, laying on Mediterranean Sea. The city is a world-renowned international harbor and a free-trade zone. Therefore, it is one of the most popular shopping destinations in Egypt, where people can buy duty-free goods and enjoy the city’s free public beaches in summer vacations. Recent radiological hazards studies had located several high radioactive lenses along the Nile Delta coastline, resulted from accumulations of black sand deposits. Concerns had been raised regarding the safety of individuals who might be exposed to high doses of radiations due to the presence of black sand deposits along Port Said beach, especially when the beach is characterized by positive accretion rates. Detailed ground radioactivity surveys were conducted at the beach aiming to measure the activity concentrations of the naturally occurring radioelements ( 238 U, 232 Th and 40 K). Spatial distributions of the three elements were mapped. Dose Rate (DR) and Annual Effective Dose Rates (AEDR) were calculated. Although the results of AEDR revealed that the radiations levels are fallen within the allowed limits, the Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) factor exceeded the world’s average of 0.25. For public awareness, high-risk areas were delineated on a risk map, showing the locations where gamma radiation emissions exceeded the allowed exposure limits for humans. It is recommended to apply the same surveying procedures at all of the public beaches along Sinai coasts, where larger quantities of Black Sands had been detected along its shoreline.