Natural radionuclides in Syrian diet and their daily intake

More than one hundred different food stuffs (meat, vegetables cereals, seafood,..) have been collected during 1998, 1999 and 2000 and analyzed for radioactivity as part of the National Food Monitoring Program in Syria. Results have shown that most of the observed concentrations were within the range of the worldwide values with the exception of relatively high levels of Po-210 being observed in fish, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs and flowers. The daily intakes of the radionuclides studied have been evaluated. Relatively high values, in comparison with some countries, were found for Po-210 (1.9 Bq/day). This is due to high content of Po-210 in wheat (2.3 Bq/kg) consumed by Syrians, the daily consumption of wheat by Syrians is about 526 g. In addition, natural and artificial radionuclides in some manufactured food of Syrian infant and their intake rates have been determined. Seventeen manufactured food and eleven types of canned milk were collected from the local market and their radioactivity analyzed. Po-210 activity concentration varied between 0.38 and 2.89 Bq/kg dry wt. in canned milk while the highest concentration in infant food was found to be 1.69 Bq/kg dry wt. Other radionuclide concentrations were below the limit of detection of 3 Bq/kg dry wt. and 4 Bq/kg dry wt. for Ra-226 and Ra-228, respectively, while uranium concentration varied between 2.2 and 10.5 mug/kg dry wt. in milk samples and 0.78-6.0 mug/kg dry wt. in other food samples.