DOSE ASSESSMENT OF NATURAL TERRESTRIAL RADIONUCLIDES IN COMMONLY CONSUMED FOODS IN NORTH INDIA

Abstract

Abstract The present study aimed to record natural radionuclide content in branded food samples representative of a typical North Indian diet. Forty samples of various food items falling into three categories namely, cereal grains, pulses and beverages were collected from the local markets of Punjab. The radiometric analysis was performed using NaI(Tl) scintillator detector. The activity concentrations ranged between 10 ± 1 and 20 ± 5 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra, Below Detectable Limit (BDL) and 10 ± 2 Bq kg−1 for 232Th and 440 ± 56 and 562 ± 70 Bq kg−1 for 40K. The radium equivalent (Raeq) varied from 55 Bq kg−1(corn) to 70 Bq kg−1 (tea) with an average of 62 Bq kg−1. Internal hazard index (HI) was also calculated (0.18–0.24), which was well below the prescribed threshold of one (24). Age-specific annual effective doses were estimated for infants, children and adults. Children were the most sensitive group of population to radionuclide doses from cereal grains. The annual effective doses were further used to calculate the lifetime cancer risk which exceeded the world average of 2.9$\times$10−4 (24). However, the overall results showed that the intake of these dietary products by the general public did not pose any serious health risk.