The availability of soil-associated radionuclides for uptake after inadvertent ingestion by humans

Assessments of the radiological impact of radionuclides released into the environment generally take into account the inadvertent ingestion of radionuclides associated with soil or sediment. Such assessments often assume that gut uptake factors for radionuclides that are biologically incorporated in food are also applicable when the ingested activity is associated with soil. Studies of the availability of soil-associated radionuclides after ingestion have been mainly conducted on ruminant animals and few data exist for humans. The digestive tract of ruminants is totally different from that of a mono-gastric animal and so the availability estimated from the animal studies may not be valid in the case of man. A simple in-vitro enzymolysis procedure was therefore developed to simulate human digestion closely. The measured availability of "1"3"7Cs, "2"4"1Am, "2"3"9PU and "9"0Sr associated with loam, sand and peat soils was about 3%, 3%, 10% and 50% respectively. (author)Includes bibliographical references. Title from coverSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:9091. 900(NRPB-W17) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo