en Medical Physics Medical Physics تحقيق بديع Original Research <div style="text-align: justify;">Background: The aim & objective of this study is to evaluate the health hazards of the general public from the existence of the radioactive nuclides in soil of North Waziristan and to establish a reference line for future work on radioactivity concentration in this locality. Methods and Materials: A highly background radiation shielded HPGe system is used to measure radioactivity in the collected samples of the geographical study area. Results: The radioactivity concentration is found to be in the range 42.6&ndash;106.3 Bq/kg for Ra-226, 4.0&ndash;93.8 Bq/kg for Th-232, 49.9&ndash;645.5 Bq/kg for K-40, and 2.6&ndash;8.33 Bq/kg for Cs-137. The external and internal hazards indices (H_ext& H_int), absorbed &gamma;- dose rate (ADR) and average effective dose (AED) are estimated from the computed activities and determined the average H_ext ~ 0.75 and H_int~ 0.94. The mean absorbed dose rate was found to be 101 nGy/h. The Radium equivalent activity of Datta Khel (422.081 Bq/kg), Khaisur forest (407.938 Bq/kg), Jani Khel (379.213) specific regions and the corresponding outdoor annual effective dose rate was found to be 0.15 mSv/yr, which is higher than the world&rsquo;s mean value of 0.07 mSv/yr. Conclusion: A strong possitive correlation amongst the radioactive nuclides and, corresponding radiological variables at P &le; 0.01confirmed that Ra-226 and Th-232 were the significant contributors to &gamma;-radiation emission. Radioactivity concentrations and corresponding radiometric parameters were found to be higher in the specific areas of North Waziristan compared to the world&rsquo;s mean values poses possible radiological risks for the residents of those areas.</div> HPGe detector, Background Radioactivity, radiological hazards, soil. 243 253 http://ijrr.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2055-9&slc_lang=en&sid=1 I.U. Khan 7900319475328460015278 7900319475328460015278 No Key Lab of In-fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry Education of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001 Z. Qin 7900319475328460015279 7900319475328460015279 No Key Lab of In-fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry Education of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001 T. Xie 7900319475328460015280 7900319475328460015280 No Key Lab of In-fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry Education of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001 Z. Bin 7900319475328460015281 7900319475328460015281 No Key Lab of In-fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry Education of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001 H. Li 7900319475328460015282 7900319475328460015282 No Key Lab of In-fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry Education of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001 W. Sun sunweimin@hrbeu.edu.cn 7900319475328460015283 7900319475328460015283 Yes Key Lab of In-fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry Education of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001 E. Lewis 7900319475328460015284 7900319475328460015284 No Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre, University of Limerick, Castletroy, Limerick, Ireland