Radiochemical separation and determination of radium-228 in bottled mineral waters by low level gamma spectrometry and its committed effective dose

Abstract

​The gross beta and 228Ra radioactivity measurements in mineral waters were performed by proportional counter and gamma spectrometry, respectively, in this study. The natural mineral water samples were collected from various regions of Turkey for this study. Gross beta activities have been determined according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency standard method (EPA 900). In the case that the gross beta activity was determined to be greater than 1 Bq/L, then the 228Ra activity concentration in the related mineral water sample was specifically measured. 228Ra activity in mineral water samples was determined by high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. The photopeak efficiencies were calculated by modeling the sample geometry and the detector in Canberra software LabSOCS. The gross beta activities in the eight of 32 bottled mineral water samples were greater than 1 Bq/L. 228Ra activity concentrations in bottled mineral waters were determined within 0.100–1.04 Bq/L. The committed effective doses were calculated for three different scenarios according to mineral water consumption rates.