STUDY ON NATURAL RADIONUCLIDE ACTIVITIES IN MEAT SAMPLES CONSUMED IN SAO PAULO CITY, BRAZIL

摘要

Consumption of food is usually the most important route by which natural and artificial radionuclides can enter the human body. An assessment of radionuclide levels in different foods and diets is therefore important to estimate the intake of these radionuclides by man. The contamination by radionuclides can occur via the food chain (soil, root, plant and animal), with emphasis to the long half-life radionuclides, which can also have their transfer through the animal meat. The inclusion of meat in human nutrition is important because it is an excellent source of high quality protein, nutrient related to construction and cell regeneration. This work aims the determination of natural radionuclides (~(234)U, ~(235)U, ~(238)U, ~(228)Th, ~(230)Th, ~(232)Th, ~(226)Ra, ~(228)Ra, and ~(210)Pb) in meat samples. Five groups of samples were analyzed, such as cattle meat (beef), fish, pork, poultry, and processed meat, after radiochemical separation followed by alpha or alpha beta spectrophotometry, and total count quantification. The determination of these radionuclides is very important because they are products of the natural decay series of ~(238)U and ~(232)Th, being easily found in meat samples.