ESTIMATION OF SOIL TO CASSAVA TRANSFER FACTOR OF SOME NATURAL RADIONUCLIDES IN FARMS AROUND THE SHORES OF ORASHI RIVER, SOUTHERN NIGERIA.
Keywords:
Activity Concentration, Transfer Factor, Radionuclides, Orashi River, Committed Effective Dose, Environmental Samples, Radiological Health RiskAbstract
The assessment of some radionuclides in environmental samples in Orashi river, southern Nigeria have been evaluated on some selected locations. The sodium iodide caberra (coaxial type) of 760mm × 760mm scintillation detector of model 3142 Bicron Spectrometer was used for the detection of activity concentration of the samples. A total of 36 samples (18 soil and 18 cassava tuber) were collected from the shores of the Orashi river and analysed. The mean activity concentration of 40K, 238U and 232Th for soil samples at different locations varies from 227.27 Bq/kg (at Oguta) to 949.77 Bq/kg (at Mbiama), 8.80 Bq/kg (at Oguta) to 17.21 Bq/kg (at Okarki) and 4.69 Bq/kg (at Okarki) to 10.52 Bq/kg (at Igovia) respectively. The mean activity concentration of 40K, 238U and 232Th for cassava tuber samples at different locations varies from 255.15 Bq/kg (at Okarki) to 891.79 Bq/kg (at Joinkramma 3), 11.29 Bq/kg (at Akinima) to 23.86 Bq/kg (at Oguta) and 8.01 Bq/kg (at Akinima) to 11.50 Bq/kg (at Mbiama) respectively. The obtained mean values of the transfer factor are 1.34 ± 1.45 for 40K, 2.06 ± 1.20 for 238U and 1.65 ± 0.38 for 232Th respectively. These transfer factor values are higher than the recommended limit of unity (1.0) as reported by UNSCEAR (2000). The obtained mean values for total committed effective dose for different age groups are infant (0.67 ± 0.02 mSv/y), children (0.13 ± 0.02 mSv/y), teenager (0.06 ± 0.01 mSv/y) and adult (0.04 ± 0.03 mSv/y). Children and infant have values higher than WHO (2008) recommended safe limit of 0.1 mSv/y while adult and teenager have values lower than the safe limit of 0.1 mSv/y. Generally, the activity concentration and the obtained radiological risks parameters may pose some health effect when the cassavas are consumed.
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