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Concentrations of (226)Ra, (228)Ra and (40)K in the five most popular Algerian bottled mineral waters have been found to be 13.9 to 148.9 mBq l(-1), 7.2 to 52.9 mBq l(-1) and <0.07 to 2.19 Bq l(-1), respectively. Ratios of (226)Ra to (228)Ra activities ranged from 1.0 to 13.66 with a mean of 5.62. The annual effective doses due to ingestion of these waters have been estimated for three age categories (infants, children and adults) using the measured activities of these radionuclides and assuming the World Health Organisation's default water intake rate. Annual doses for children and adults have been found to be well below the 0.1 mSv y(-1) reference dose level, whereas for the most vulnerable group the annual effective dose from all the waters exceeds the reference value and contributes 12% to the mean annual dose from natural exposure.

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