Radioactive Contamination of Food in Stepanivka Village, Zhytomyr Region,

Two series of measurements of radioactive contamination in food samples were performed in 1992 and in 2001 in a village contaminated by the Chernobyl accident. The village, Stepanivka is located 120 km to the west of Chernobyl NPP and has a typical level of Cs-137 surface contamination around that area (3 – 5 Ci/km2). The study was performed by the Independent Environmental Laboratory in Kyiv, jointly founded by the Ukrainian NGO "Green World", Greenpeace International and the International Renaissance Foundation. It is shown that the Cs-137 contamination in milk in 2001 became 9 times lower than in 1992, while the Cs-137 contamination in wild mushrooms and berries remained at the same level. Annual intake of Cs-137 by the people in Stepanivka through food products and water was about 3 times lowe