title: Using tobacco plants as biomonitors of contaminated norm areas.
abstract: One of the largest biomonitoring tasks is the assessing and environment monitoring of radiological wastes produced by mining. Po-210 and Pb-210 are easy to mobilise even in a weak acidic medium and as we know the biological behaviour and accumulation capacity of tobacco, this could be a suitable option for biomonitoring. During our work the Pb-210 and Po-210 concentration values of tobacco parts and soil samples originating from a Hungarian remediated uranium mine site were determined. The source preparation was spontaneous deposition following combined acidic leaching with a Po-209 tracer; the detection was carried out with a semiconductor ('PIPS') detector alpha-spectrometer. According to the results for the tobacco plant parts and soil samples, secular equilibrium could be found between the Pb-210 and Po-210 isotopes, and the isotope content of the lower leaves of the tobacco plants was in correlation with the isotope concentration of the soil; therefore, the measurement of the activity concentration is suitable for tracing smaller levels of washing out. The Po-210 activity concentration values of tobacco (average: 15.5 ± 3.6 Bq kg(-1)) and soil (average: 60.1 ± 15.2 Bq kg(-1)) samples originating from the area investigated compared with samples from another part of Hungary, Balatonalmádi (tobacco: 12.5 ± 1.0 Bq kg(-1), soil: 57.0 ± 4.7 Bq kg(-1)), do not show significant radionuclide migration.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Radiochemistry and Radioecology, University of Pannonia, H-8200 Veszprem, Egyetem Strasse 10, Hungary.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Máté
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horváth
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Somlai
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kovács
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D007856:Lead Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism*; D011059:Polonium / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D007856:Lead Radioisotopes; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; D011059:Polonium