Assessment of Natural Radioactivity Levels and Radiation Hazards in Agricultural and Virgin Soil in the State of Kedah, North of Malaysia

Table 3

The mean activity concentrations of natural radioactivity of agriculture and virgin soils in the present study were compared with those from similar investigations performed in other countries.

Region/country	Concentration in soil (Bq kg^−1)						Reference
	^226Ra		^232Th		^40K
	Mean	Range	Mean	Range	Mean	Range
Virgin soil
Malaysia (Penang)	396		165		835		Almayahi et al. [5]
Malaysia (Pontian)	37		53		293		Saleh et al. [6]
Malaysia (Kedah)	51.06		78.44		125.66		Ahmad et al. [7]
Malaysia	65.24	45.11–111.4	83.39	51.83–127.35	136.98	99.2–172.8	The present study
Agriculture soil
Malaysia (Kedah)	80.63		116.87		200.66		Ahmad et al. [7]
India	64		93		124		Singh et al. [8]
Pakistan	30		56		602		Tufail et al. [9]
Algeria	53.2		50.03		311		Boukhenfouf and Boucenna [10]
Egypt	43	5.7–140	54	9–139	183	22–319	Issa [11]
Thailand	43	11–78	51	7–120	230	7–712	UNSCEAR [2]
Malaysia	66	49–86	82	63–110	310	170–430	UNSCEAR [2]
Greece	16 ± 6	12–26	55 ± 14	39–72	305 ± 59	222–376	Ioannides et al. [12]
Malaysia	102.08 ± 3.96	58.93–166.55	133.96	87.98–180.45	325.87	202.2–529.17	The present study