Soil-to-crop transfer of natural radionuclides in farm soil of South Africa

Gamma spectroscopy study of soil-plant transfer factor characteristics of 40K, 232Th and 226Ra in some crops cultivated in southwestern region of Nigeria

“…The average ACs of 226 Ra and 232 Th obtained in the various food crops are higher than reference values of 30 and 0.5 mBq/kg, respectively in root vegetables and fruits; 50 and 15 mBq/kg, respectively in leaf vegetables, and 80 and 3 mBq/kg in grains [ 1 ]. The present values show similar range in comparison with other reported literature data [ 2 , 4 , 6 , 11 , 17 , 18 , 26 , 39 , 40 ]. Average ACs of 40 K, 232 Th and 226 Ra obtained in this study were noticeably higher than literature values of 36.48–68.02 Bq/kg, 1.26–2.98 Bq/kg and 2.33–5.18 Bq/kg, respectively, in vegetables and 49.10–202.75 Bq/kg, 6.92–16.60 Bq/kg and 9.58–17.78 Bq/kg, respectively, in tuber crops from some communities in Delta, Nigeria associated with oil and gas activities [ 29 ].…”

“…This observed variation is a typical feature of natural radionuclides in environmental samples [ 6 , 38 ]. Aside the natural influences, the observed variation may also be the effect of amendment of the soil with fertilizers and other agrochemical inputs as well as the farming culture of the region under study [ 4 , 6 , 18 , 39 , 40 ]. It was noted that 40 K in all the samples measured higher concentrations than the other radionuclides, an observation attributable to the natural abundance of potassium-40 which has a fixed ratio with the stable potassium [ 41 ].…”

“…Characteristics study of soil-plant TFs started over 60 years ago following the atmospheric nuclear weapons testing conducted within the period of 1950s and 1960s [ 10 ]. Since then, TFs of radionuclides such as 232 Th, 229 Ra, 228 Ra, 238 U, 210 Pb, 40 K, 137 Cs, 54 Mn, 57 Co, 88 Y, 85 Sr, 103 Ru, for different plants and species have been widely reported [ 2 , [5] , [6] , [7] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] ].…”

An Exposure to Natural Background Radiation in Eastern Nepal

“…The banana has a relatively higher amount of 40K radioisotopes and contributes to increasing the background radiation. It is one of the major sources to increase the internal radiation of the human body (Ilori & Chetty, 2020). The least background radiation (0.12±0.02 μSv/h) was observed in the maize field.…”

Az élelmiszer-minőség jellemzői és a veszélyforrások az élelmiszerláncokban

“…Ez a mezőgazdasági termelés tilalmához vezetett Fehéroroszországban 265 000 hektáron, Ukrajnában 130 000 hektáron és Oroszországban 17 000 hektáron [56] . A radionuklidok azonban nem csak nukleáris katasztrófákkal, hanem műtrágyák használatával is eljutnak az élelmiszerláncba [57,58,59] .…”