Title: Establishment of a radioactive contamination index in seawater from the Gulf and Pacific coasts in Mexico

Authors: Juan Manuel Navarrete; Graciela Müller; Jose Ignacio Golzarri; Guillermo Espinosa

Addresses: Faculty of Chemistry, Building D, National University of Mexico, CU, Mexico City, ZC 04510, Mexico. ' Faculty of Chemistry, Building D, National University of Mexico, CU, Mexico City, ZC 04510, Mexico. ' Institute of Physics, National University of Mexico, CU, Mexico City, ZC 04510, Mexico. ' Institute of Physics, National University of Mexico, CU, Mexico City, ZC 04510, Mexico

Abstract: This paper intends to establish one radioactive contamination index in seawater based on the relation A₁/A₂, where A₁ is the radioactivity due to the contaminant radioisotope ¹³⁷Cs and A₂ is the radioactivity due to the natural radioisotope ⁴⁰K, both expressed either as Bq/l in seawater or Bq/g in sea salt. At a second step, the same volumes of marine sediments were detected, but in this case results were expressed as Bq/g (dry basis) in order to find an index of radioactive contamination which remains more or less unchanged in seabed. The first results obtained show the adopted units are suitable for proposed contamination index, which might be useful to measure the extent and importance of radioactive contamination in every sea region of the planet. Therefore, it is a proposal for a direct measurement at greater range, which could be compared with punctual results all over the world to avoid the panic.

Keywords: natural contamination; radioactivity; seawater; sea salt; marine sediments; Mexico; coasts; environmental pollution; water pollution; radioactive contamination index; natural radioisotopes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENVH.2011.044143

International Journal of Environment and Health, 2011 Vol.5 No.4, pp.318 - 323

Published online: 09 Dec 2011 *

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