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On transfer factors of natural radionuclides and radiological health risks assessment of some fruit samples

  • Hemn Salh ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Shalaw Zrar Sedeeq ORCID logo , Serpil Aközcan Pehlivanoğlu ORCID logo , Ikbal M. Albarzinji ORCID logo and Fatih Külahcı ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: June 7, 2024

Abstract

In this study, the activity concentration of artificial and natural radionuclides such as 137Cs, 40K, 226Ra, and 232Th was measured in the soil under the roots; leaves; and fruits of six different fruit trees namely mulberry, fig, apricot, olive, black and white grapes in Koya district, Erbil province, Iraq. For this purpose, a high-resolution gamma spectroscopy consisting of a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector was used. In addition, the associated radiological risks from soil and fruits were assessed by calculating several radiological indices such as radium equivalent (Raeq.s), absorbed dose (Ds), indoor (AEDEs indoor ) and outdoor annual effective doses (AEDEs outdoor ), internal and external hazard indices, gamma index and the excess lifetime cancer risk (ELRCs). The results show that consuming these fruits is radiologically safe because they can cause an annual effective dose of about 61.72 μSv y−1 and excess lifetime cancer risk of 0.06 × 10−3 Sv y−1. On the other hand, transfer factors of radionuclides from soil to leaves; and from soil to fruits were studied. The transfer factor analysis revealed that among the studied fruits and radionuclides, apricot and mulberry exhibited the highest transfer factors for 40K, with values of 1.85 and 1.87, respectively.


Corresponding author: Hemn Salh, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Koya KOY45, Iraq, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

The activity concentrations were measured in the Nuclear Physics laboratory, DPHY, FSCH, Koya University, the authors would like to thank Koya University and the Department of Physics for providing a research environment.

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Research funding: None declared.

  5. Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

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Received: 2023-09-13
Accepted: 2024-05-23
Published Online: 2024-06-07
Published in Print: 2024-10-28

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