Measurement of age-dependent radiation ingestion doses due to gross alpha and gross beta exposure from medicinal plants

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents the results of a study conducted to measure the gross alpha, gross beta activities in medicinal plant samples collected from different districts of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. The ASC-950-DP gasless high-speed counter was used for the measurement of gross α/β activities. Measured activities have been used to assess age-dependent annual effective doses for infants, one-, five-, ten-, and fifteen-year-old and adult people. For a medicinal plant consumption rate (MPCR) of 1.8 kg a–1, the average gross alpha and beta annual committed effective dose (ACED) delivered to one-, five-, ten-, fifteen-year-olds and adults fall below the WHO recommended level (290 µSv a–1) and that reported in the UNSCEAR 2000 (0.3 mSv a–1) report. Results obtained for the current study show that the radiological hazard related to the consumption of natural radionuclides in medicinal plants is inconsequential with exception of the ACED delivered to infants at an MPCR of 1.8 g a–1 and higher values.