Chernobyl radioactivity in Turkish tea and its possible health consequences

Abstract

Like several other European countries, Turkey has been affected by the radioactive clouds arising from the Chemobyl reactor accident. There were two major fronts. The first one affected the western parts of Turkey, namely Thrace, Istanbul and Western Black Sea coast, starting from April 30th 1986. The second cloud affected the Eastern Black Sea coast at the beginning of May 1986. In both regions the clouds left their radioactive content with the heavy rains. Eastern Sea coast is one of the regions receiving highest volume of rainfall almost all year round. However, after the accident, the rains loaded with radioactive contaminants felt just before the tea collection period and the contaminated tea leaves were collected without finding a chance for cleaning with following rains. All of the tea consumed by Turkish people grows on a very narrow coastal line along the Eastern Black Sea. In this study, the results of radioactivity measurement on Turkish tea are summarized. Although there were other affected products in the region, e.g., hazelnuts, tobacco, vegetables, their level of contamination and yearly consumption rates were not as significant as tea. Tea is the major hot beverage consumed by Turkish people of all ages, but unfortunately it turned out to be one of the heavily contaminated products of Turkey. The effect of brewing and rinsing with hot water on tea were also investigated in the present work. The dose estimates from the tea consumption was done following a different approach than previous studies. Instead of using the radioactivity data obtained by measuring only limited number of contaminated tea samples in our laboratories, the data reported by the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency Authority covering all the tea product of 1986 were used for dose estimates. In addition the collective effective dose equivalent in Turkey was estimated. Although in this study contamination only in one product, namely tea, was discussed, it turned out to be important as it was consumed by large populations in Turkey, so contributed to the doses significantly. Precautions to be taken were summarized, one simple precaution “rinsing of tea before brewing” was sufficient to remove half of the contamination from tea without any drawbacks.