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Preliminary survey of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activity level and their cancer risk in some foodstuff, Sudan

Hajo Idriss (Deanship of Scientific Research, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) (Sudan Atomic Energy Commission, Khartoum, Sudan)
Haitham M Elhassan (Sudan Customs Authority, Ministry of Interior, Khartoum, Sudan)

British Food Journal

ISSN: 0007-070X

Article publication date: 31 December 2020

Issue publication date: 13 July 2021

322

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to buildup baseline data for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K levels in different food samples and computes their cancer risk (CR).

Design/methodology/approach

This report has been performed to buildup baseline data for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K levels in different food samples and computes their CR. 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activity levels were measured using ?-ray spectrometry based on high-purity germanium (HPGe).

Findings

The findings exhibited that the annual effective dose (AED) and CR due to 226Ra ingestion in foodstuff samples have shown the trends cereal > vegetable > meat > fruits > sesame. Meanwhile, (AED) and (CR) due to 40K displayed the trends vegetable > cereal > meat > fruits > sesame. Although the average value of radiological dose due to ingestion of some radionuclides slightly exceed the values of some foodstuff around the world. However, the overall average of (AED) for all foodstuff samples (226.6 µSv/y) was found to be far below the world average (AED) (300 µSv/y).

Practical implications

The main contributor to the AED was 40K 85, 226Ra 9 and 232Th 6%. The computed magnitude values for CR owing to 226Ra, 232Th, 40K (1.3 × 10−5) lower than International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) CR of (2.5 × 10−3) for the general public.

Originality/value

The main contributor to the AED was 40K 85 %, 226Ra 9% and 232Th 6%. The computed magnitude values for CR owing to 226Ra, 232Th, 40K (1.3 × 10−5) lower than ICRP CR of (2.5 × 10−3) for the general public.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to give a lot of thank to the staff members of the Sudanese Customs Police, especially those of the Radiation Protection and Nuclear Security Department for their logistic support.Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest

Citation

Idriss, H. and M Elhassan, H. (2021), "Preliminary survey of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activity level and their cancer risk in some foodstuff, Sudan", British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 8, pp. 2856-2863. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2020-0507

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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