Natural radioactivity in farm soils and major food crops grown in Ayetoro, Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria
by Shamsideen Kunle Alausa; Omotomilola Oloye Omotosho
International Journal of Low Radiation (IJLR), Vol. 10, No. 4, 2017

Abstract: Radioactivity data in food and farm soil in sedimentary rocky areas like Ayetoro, Nigeria, are scarce. Maize, cassava and the underneath soil samples were collected from Ayetoro. The ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th activity concentrations in the samples were measured with a gamma ray spectrometer. The soil-to-food crop transfer factors, ingestion effective dose rates due to the crops and the outdoor effective dose rates due to soils were evaluated. The mean ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th activity concentrations in maize were 160.3 ± 66.5 Bqkg⁻¹, 18.1 ± 7.1 Bqkg⁻¹ and 15.0 ± 8.0 Bqkg⁻¹ respectively and the soils were 671.5 ± 352.9 Bqkg⁻¹, 66.8 ± 25.3 Bqkg⁻¹ and 62.1 ± 27.9 Bqkg⁻¹ for ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th respectively. The mean activity concentrations in cassava were 294.6 ± 137.2 Bqkg⁻¹, 28.6 ± 14.9 Bqkg⁻¹ and 18.2 ± 13.0 Bqkg⁻¹ for ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th respectively and the soils were 679.5 ± 281.1 Bqkg⁻¹, 66.8 ± 32.7 Bqkg⁻¹ and 49.7 ± 46.9 Bqkg⁻¹ for ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th respectively. The results indicated that the activity concentrations, ingestion effective dose and outdoor effective dose are low and no serious radiological health impact is expected.

Online publication date: Mon, 30-Oct-2017

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Low Radiation (IJLR):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com