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210Po inhalation due to smoking: a dose estimation

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Abstract

Smoking is the second reason for developing lung cancer. Our goal was to determine how the amount of 210Po in the tobacco is distributed among the cigarette parts and what percentage reaches the respiratory system, calculating the effective dose. 210Po from tobacco, filter and ash samples were measured from seven Romanian cigarette brands by alpha spectrometry. The obtained average results were 13.97 ± 1.75 mBq/cigarette in the tobacco; 1.61 ± 0.25 mBq/cigarette in the filter and 3.33 ± 0.29 mBq/cigarette in the ash. The dose originating from active smoking was estimated to have an average of 8.36 ± 0.91 μSv/year, while the passive smoking dose reaching the respiratory system was 5.92 ± 0.49 μSv.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Róbert-Csaba Begy, Hedvig Simon & Szabolcs Kelemen

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  1. Róbert-Csaba Begy
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  2. Hedvig Simon
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  3. Szabolcs Kelemen
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Correspondence to Hedvig Simon.

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Begy, RC., Simon, H. & Kelemen, S. 210Po inhalation due to smoking: a dose estimation. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 306, 257–261 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4073-x

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