Abstract
Radioactivity in the environment occur due to natural, terrestrial, extra-terrestrial factors or caused by the human activity. Food stuffs that grown in the soil which containing radioactive elements may get deposited or absorbed in the foods. Wild growing mushrooms can accumulate many types of toxicological, nutritional and radioactive elements. So, mushrooms are considered as good bio-indicators to determine the environmental pollution caused by radiations. Knowing the levels of radioactivity in the food stuffs is of great importance for the protection of human health. In this study, the active concentrations of the naturally occurring 238U, 232Th, 40K nuclides and artificially occurring 137Cs nuclide were determined and annual effective doses and excess lifetime cancer risk values were calculated in mushrooms commonly consumed by the Turkish people. 15 types of mushroom samples were collected from different locations of Turkey. The results show that the activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs varied from 9.2±1.6 to 75.4±8.8 Bq kg-1, 10.9±1.6 to 76.3±8.9 Bq kg-1, 925.9±29.0 to 3848.0±73.2 Bq kg-1 and 6.1±1.1 to 2824.8±79.8 Bq kg-1, respectively. The mean total annual effective dose was found to be 11.5 μSv y-1. 40K radionuclide was the highest contributor to the total annual effective dose (5.35 μSv y-1). According to these values obtained, the mean excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) of mushrooms was determined as 4.6 x10-5 %.
Highlights
Mushrooms have been used as an important food in the human nutrition for thousands of years all over the world
The objective of this study was to determine the activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs radionuclides and to calculate annual effective doses and excess lifetime cancer risks in some commonly consumed wild growing and cultivated mushrooms collected from different locations of Turkey
The mean activity concentrations of radionuclides across all the mushrooms studied were in the decreasing order: 40K > 137Cs > 238U > 232Th
Summary
Mushrooms have been used as an important food in the human nutrition for thousands of years all over the world. The radioactive substances adversely affect the health of people, animals and plants and disrupt the environment and ecological balance. The major sources of radioactive substances released into the environment are nuclear weapon tests, manufacture of radioactive compounds, nuclear power plants, radioactive waste disposal and nuclear researches. Humans are exposed to mostly natural radionuclides (Mazzilli et al, 2002). It is released to the atmosphere as a result of nuclear experiments made for many years or nuclear accidents. It is a crucial fission product due to its high fission yield and its long half-life period (30.17 years). Approximately 3.8x1016 Bq of 137Cs was released into the environment after the Chernobyl disaster (UNSCEAR, 1988)
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