Activity concentration of natural radionuclides and transfer factors from soil to vegetable in parts of South South Nigeria

Abstract

Naturally occurring radionuclide materials are known to exist in soils and is transferred into vegetables and eventually gets into food chain. This work was aimed at determining the activity concentration of these radionuclides in soils and vegetable (fluted pumpkin) and the internal exposure due to the consumption of these materials in the vegetable in parts of South South Nigeria particularly Etim Ekpo Local Government area. The activity concentrations of twenty (20) soil samples and 20 vegetable samples from the farmlands were determined using gamma spectrometry. The activity concentration for 40K ,232Th and 238U from the soil samples ranged from 6.69±0.35 (Bqkg-1) to 168.19 ±8.82 (Bqkg-1) ,0.23 ±0.01 (Bqkg-1) to 5.91 ±0.35 (Bqkg-1) and BDL to 21.53±2.5 (Bqkg-1) respectively. The activity concentration of 40K, 232Th and 238U in the vegetable ranged from (584.23±27.71) Bqkg-1 to (958.67±48.46) Bqkg-1, from (1.84±0.11) Bqkg-1 to (9.72 ±0.56) and from (BDL) to (38.34±3.74) Bqkg-1 respectively. Transfer factors obtained ranged between 12.07±4.7 to 35.35 ±27.9 for 40K, 1.80±0.125 to 5.76 ± 4.31 for 232Th and BDL to 21.05 for 238U. Effective ingestion dose due to the consumption of vegetable from the study area obtained as 0.0021mSvy-1. This value is less than the 0.29mSvy-1 recommended dose limit for the general public; therefore, the consumption of this vegetable could not cause a radiological health effect on its consumers. However negligible or low risk could be minimised when the vegetable is washed and cooked before being consumed. Hence, the results obtained in this study indicate that the activity concentration of the farmland soils and crops represent no significant health risk on the farmers and the consumers of the vegetables.

Assessment of the radiological health risk from radionuclide presence and transfer factor from soil to corn in some selected non-oil producing riverine areas of Akwa Ibom state

“…Figure 1 The study area chart highlighting the coastal areas in Akwa Ibom State One of the states in the down south part of Nigeria is Akwa Ibom. The state is about Latitude 4 0 32 0 N and 5 0 33 0 N and Longitude 7 0 25 0 E and 8 0 25 0 E (Figure 1) (Benjamin et al, 2022). It is located in the Niger Delta region (Figure 1).…”

“…The estimation of the activity concentration may be achieved using Equation 1 . Equation 2was adequate for the determination of transfer factor (Benjamin et al 2022;Ejoh et al, 2023). It is a dimensionless quantity.…”