Ionizing Radiation Dose Due to the Use of Agricultural Fertilizers

摘要

The transference of radionuclides from the fertilizers to/and from soils to the foodstuffscan represent an increment in the internal dose when the vegetables are consumed by the humanbeings. This work evaluates the contribution of fertilizers to the increase of radiation level in theenvironment and of dose to the people. Samples of fertilizers, soils and vegetables produced infarms located in the neighbourhood of Sao Paulo city in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil wereanalysed through gamma spectroscopy. The values of specific activity of ~(40)K,~(238)Uand ~(232)Thshowthat there is no significant transference of natural radionuclides from fertilizers to the final productof the food chain. The annual committed effective dose due to the ingestion of 40K contained in thegroup of consumed vegetables analysed in this work resulted in the very low value of 0.882 μSv.