ASSESSMENT OF NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY IN MAIZE AND ESTIMATION OF CONCOMITANT DOSE TO NIGERIAN VIA INGESTION PATHWAY. Issue 3 (15th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yarima, Mudassir H; Khandaker, M U; Nadhiya, A; Olatunji, M A
• Is Part Of: Radiation protection dosimetry. Volume 184:Issue 3/4(2019)
• Page Start: 359
• Page End: 362
• Publication Date: 2019-05-15
• Subjects: Radiation dosimetry -- Periodicals; Radiation -- Safety measures -- Periodicals; 363.1799
• DOI: 10.1093/rpd/ncz115
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0144-8420

Abstract

Abstract: Uranium, thorium and potassium are the most abundant naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) found in soils and other environmental media including foodstuffs. Since the human exposures to NORMs is an unavoidable phenomenon, in such a way that they can easily find their way to human being via food chain, detailed knowledge on their presence in foodstuffs is necessary to assess the radiation dose to the population. Thus, the present study concerns the assessment of natural radioactivity in maize, a staple foodstuff for Nigerian, via HPGe gamma-ray spectrometry. Activity concentrations (Bq/kg) in the maize samples were found to be in the range of 6.1 ± 0.6–8.2 ± 1.3, 2.2 ± 0.4–5.1 ± 0.7 and 288 ± 16–401 ± 24 for 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K, respectively. Measured data for 226 Ra and 232 Th show below the world average values of 67 Bq/kg and 82 Bq/kg, respectively, while the activity of 40 K exceeds the global average of 310 Bq/kg. The annual effective dose via the maize consumption was found to be far below the UNSCEAR recommended ingestion dose limit of 290 μSv/y, and the estimated lifetime cancer risk show lower than the ICRP (1991) cancer risk factor of 2.5 × 10 −3 based on the additional annual dose limit of 1 mSv for general public, thus pose no adverse health risk to the Nigerian populace.