Health hazards of radioactive sands along the coast of Espirito Santo/Brazil

Radiometric studies in Espirito Santo, Southeast Brazil, show that especially in the Guarapari region black beach sands may exhibit highly enhanced radiation levels mainly due to the content of the radioactive mineral monazite. Famous for its natural radiation is the Areia Preta beach in Guarapari where thousands of tourists try to cure diseases by lying on or even covering themselves with this radioactive sand. This study reveals that the gamma radiation amounts alone indicate a serious health hazard for the tourists. We propose to extract the (dark-yellow to brown) monazite from the noxiously radioactive spots in order to minimize the risk of radiation injury, but to keep the black sands as attraction for tourism.