Investigating NORMs transfer factor in food items harvested from Gerado agricultural soil, and their related health hazards Dessie, Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, the activity concentration of NORMs were measured using gamma spectrometer, based on NaI(Tl) detector with Maestro-32 installed computer soft- ware. Accordingly, the average activity concentrations of 232Th, 238U, and 40K in soil samples were found 17.85±0.50, 40.16±0.54, and 271.46±0.07, respectively, which are lower than the average world recommended values given by UNSCEAR 2000 for Th and K, but higher for U decay series. In the same way, activity concentration of NORMs in food items cultivated from the irrigation site were measured and the highest activity concentrations were observed in bean samples. The transfer factors of 232Th, 238U and 40K from soil to food items were computed based on the measured activity values, and in most food items it is observed above the world average values. The consecutive chronic daily intake via ingestion for some food items from samples are also above the permissible limit. The transfer factor from Gerado agricultural soil to plant exceed the world average values in the cases of 232Th and 238U according to our study.