Abstract
A survey on man-made (137Cs and 90Sr) and natural radionuclides (238 U,232 Th,228 Ra,226 Ra) in cereal crops was conducted by collecting 66 cereal samples at 36 flour mills. This was the first time that natural radionuclides were included in such a survey in Finland. Based on the results new domestic reference concentrations for cereals were suggested: 2 mBq·kg−1 for238U and 232Th, 100 mBq·kg−1 for228Ra and 200 mBq·kg−1 for226Ra. The mean committed effective dose from ingestion of all radionuclides in cereal products was assessed as 30 μSv per year. Currently, the man-made radionuclides contribute only one percent to the total dose whereas in 1963 their proportion was about half and in 1987 about 20%, one year after the Chernobyl accident. Even so, the doses are very small and pose insignificant health risk to the consumers.
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Communicated by R.A. McIntosh
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Turtiainen, T., Kostiainen, E. Radiological Hazards in Finnish Cereals: Comparison of Man-made and Natural Sources. CEREAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 41, 366–375 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1556/CRC.2013.0015
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/CRC.2013.0015