Concentration of radionuclides in Swedish market basket and its radiological implications

Abstract

The entrance of radionuclides to the human food chain together with the ingestion favour tissues deposition of radionuclides throughout the human body, which may have long-term implications for radiation doses. That affects world population, since it represents approximately 12% of the annual effective dose received for the public. This contribution will be quite variable depending on the food habits, food origin and the background levels of the place of residence. It is therefore necessary to monitor the food to be able to control and quantify the risk of exposure of the public. A wide range of food products (vegetables, fruits, meat, fish etc.) have been collected and analysed by different radiometric techniques in order to measure the activity concentration of naturally occurring and anthropogenic radionuclides (40K, 137Cs, 210Po, 226Ra, 228Ra, 234U and 238U). The results of the investigation highlighted that the average committed effective dose from one year's food consumption in Sweden ranged from 82 to 142 μSv for children and it was around 134 μSv for adults. Additionally, considering the consumption percentile 95 (P95), the total ingestion exposure could raise up to 560 μSv/y for children and 340 μSv/y for adults. In all population groups analysed, the internal exposure was mainly controlled by the intake of 210Po (∼ 94–98%), in particular via seafood consumption for example, as a result of the high levels of 210Po in shellfish such as shrimp (30 ± 2 Bq/kg) or blue mussel (55 ± 7 Bq/kg).