A study on the activity concentrations of natural radionuclides and annual effective dose values in some tobacco samples

Abstract

Tobacco samples were collected from different tobacco markets from Antalya in Turkey. To calculate natural radionuclides activity concentration, samples were counted for 86400 seconds by using high purity germanium (HPGe) detector. Activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K for tobacco samples found higher than minimum detectable activity (MDA). 137Cs was not detected in any sample. Activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K range from 83±15 Bqkg-1 to 325±45 Bqkg-1, 29±5 Bqkg-1 to 207±37 Bqkg-1 and (2.09±0.28)x103 Bqkg-1 to (5.07±0.90) x103 Bqkg-1, respectively. In addition, annual effective dose value was calculated. The annual effective dose values owing to inhalation for adults change from 2.76 to 9.91 μSvy-1 for 214Pb, from 5.69 to 27.69 μSvy-1 for 214Bi, from 5.72 to 40.41 μSvy-1 for 228Ac, from 42.23 to 102.37 μSvy-1 for 40K. The total annual effective dose values change from 0.05 to 0.16 mSvy-1.