Assimilation of natural Radionuclides in the wheat plant from cultivated soil

The intake of naturally nuclides 238U, 232Th, and 40K by wheat crop from two different fertilization soils of Iraq was studied under natural farm conditions. The overall mean of soil to wheat cereal transfer factors (TF) was studied and observed to be in the range of 0.6 × 10-3 to 0.70 × 10-3 for 238U, 0.11 × 10-3 to 0.13 × 10-3 for 232Th and 0.054 to 0.055 for 40K. The calculated values of TF for wheat grain denote that 40K are the significant radionuclides that are transferred in grain. This evaluation is most important for the production of foodstuffs with low contents of radionuclides. The assimilation of radionuclides by consuming wheat cereals from the farms studied gives a small fraction to the total annual ingestion dose received by a person due to naturally existent radioactivity material in the environment. This study proves that the natural radioactivity and Ingestion effective dose was lower than the safe, which the total of the dose received from 238U and 232Th due to consumption of wheat grains alone from fertilized field 0.056 and 0.045 mSv y-1 from the unfertilized field total ingestion dose, the dose received from 40K due to the consumption from the unfertilized and fertilized field was 0.0102 and 0.0137 respectively. The dose values were less than the limit value of 0.30 mSv y-1. Therefore, the consumption of these foods has no health risks. This process may help to obtain basics on radiological health regulations The activity concentration of natural radionuclides 238U, 232Th, and 40K in fertilized and unfertilized soil and wheat plants growing into is statistically significant at 1% level of significance using an independent t-test.

Natural Radioactivity Levels and Heavy Metal Contents in Selected Domestic Food Products in Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia

The current study is considered as the first baseline data for the natural radioactivity concentrations in vegetables, fruits and grain products from the Qassim region. Furthermore, the measurements of the heavy metals concentrations in the selected domestic food products were performed. In order to measure the radionuclides concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in vegetables, fruits, and grain products samples, γ-ray spectrometer NaI(Tl) was used. Before measurements, the samples required preparations. ARL Quant’X energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) was also used for measurement of heavy metals concentrations in the domestic food products samples. In the present study, the average and range values of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in vegetables samples were 2.18 (0.32–5.68) Bq/Kg, 2.22 (0.47–8.16) Bq/Kg and 751.83 (258.0–1269.1) Bq/Kg. The radionuclides concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in fruits were 3.71 (0.18–8.05) Bq/Kg, 2.94 (0.84–7.83) Bq/Kg and 426.25 (156.4–905.9) Bq/Kg. Furthermore, the average and range of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in grain products samples were 1.57 (0.90–2.87) Bq/Kg, 1.53 (0.27–2.93) Bq/Kg and 730.0 (264.7–1172.8) Bq/Kg. Hence, the average annual effective doses resulting from intake of vegetables, fruits and grain products samples were 20.2 μSv·y−1, 31.6 μSv·y−1 and 152.1 μSv·y−1 for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K respectively. The average and range values of Fe were higher than tolerance value determined by FAO/WHO but its average value was within the range of other published studies. Regarding to annual ingestion dose, the present study shows that no risk to public health resulting from domestic products. Furthermore, heavy metals such as Ag, Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, As and Pb were measured and their values were not reported in the all samples.