Abstract
Ingestion of radionuclides through food intake accounts for a substantial part of radiation doses and vegetables constitute essential components of the diet, by contributing protein, vitamins, iron, calcium and other nutrients. Radionuclides can be apprehended in the ecosystem of the East Singhbhum region which is known for its viable grades of uranium. In the present study, vegetables were collected from the villages around the proposed Bagjata mining area and analysed for U(nat), 226 Ra, 230 Th and 210 Po. The geometric mean concentration of U(nat), 226 Ra, 230 Th, and 210 Po were 0.05, 0.09, 0.17 and 1.12 Bq kg-1 fresh weight, respectively. The intake of the radionuclides from vegetables was found to be 49.58 Bq y-1 while the ingestion dose was calculated to be 11.51 µSv y-1 , respectively. The estimated doses are reflecting the natural background dose via the route of ingestion, which is much below the 1 mSv limit set in the new ICRP recommendations. It is lower than the global average annual radiation dose of 2 400 µSv to man from the natural radiation sources as proposed by UNSCEAR. The total cancer risk due to the consumption of vegetables was calculated to be 6.65 × 10-9 which is negligible and much lower than the threshold risk value of 10-6 . The study also reveals that water is more conducive for high radioactivity occurrence in vegetables compared to soil systems.
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