Paper Title
Natural Radioactivity Level And The Risks Arising From The Consumption of Household Cooking Utensils in Saudi Arabia

Abstract
This work is extremely important for development of standards and guidelines Manufacturing for household cooking utensils from clay, ceramic and stone materials used in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the radioactivity levels due to the presence of 40K, 232Th and 226Ra were determined using gamma spectrometry (HPGe). The activity concentrations of 226Ra ranged between 5.75 Bq kg-1 (Yemen stone sample)-192.35 Bq kg-1 (China ceramic sample), where the activity concentrations of 232Th ranged between 6.17 Bq kg-1 (Yemen stone sample)-192.41 Bqkg-1 (China ceramic sample) however the activity concentrations of 40K ranged between 43.92 Bq kg-1 (clay sample manufactured in Bahra, Saudi Arabia) -656.96 Bq kg-1 (ceramic sample selected from Romania). Radiological indices were measured of all samples to estimate the radiation health hazards. All average concentration values obtained of 226 Ra,232Th and absorbed dose rate DR in clay and ceramic which used as household cooking utensils were upper than the permissible global values except in clay samples from Makkah, Saudi Arabia and in all cooking utensils manufactured from stone. While, the most obtained values of average activity concentration of 40K was exceed the recommended level. Radium equivalent Raeq , annual gonadal dose equivalent AGDE, external index Hex and activity index Iγ were found below the internationally accepted safe limit except in ceramic sample imported from China, also, it shows the annual effective dose AEDE slightly upper unit. The concentration of thirty three chemical elements (Na,Si, Mg,Al, Ca, K, Fe, Cl, ,Pd, Cu, Ba,Rb, Pb, Cr, P, Y, S, Hf, Bi, Ni, Th, U, Sn, In, Mo, Nb, Ru, Sb, Rh, Zr, Zn, Ti and Sr) were estimated using ARL QUANT�X Energy-Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence spectrometer (EDXRF). Elements have accumulated in most of the samples with concentrations exceeding the values of reference levels. Finally, It is safe to say that there is a potential risk might be exposed for any users of the materials under study. So, Care must be taken when using cooking utensils manufactured from clay, ceramic and stone. Keywords: EDXRF analyzer ,Gamma spectrometry, Radiation hazard , household cooking utensils; Natural radioactivity