title: Soil-to-root vegetable transfer factors for (226)Ra, (232)Th, (40)K, and (88)Y in Malaysia.
abstract: Soil-to-plant transfer factors (TFs) are of fundamental importance in assessing the environmental impact due to the presence of radioactivity in soil and agricultural crops. Tapioca and sweet potato, both root crops, are popular foodstuffs for a significant fraction of the Malaysian population, and result in intake of radionuclides. For the natural field conditions experienced in production of these foodstuffs, TFs and the annual effective dose were evaluated for the natural radionuclides (226)Ra, (232)Th, (40)K, and for the anthropogenic radionuclide (88)Y, the latter being a component of fallout. An experimental tapioca field was developed for study of the time dependence of plant uptake. For soil samples from all study locations other than the experimental field, it has been shown that these contain the artificial radionuclide (88)Y, although the uptake of (88)Y has only been observed in the roots of the plant Manihot esculenta (from which tapioca is derived) grown in mining soil. The estimated TFs for (226)Ra and (232)Th for tapioca and sweet potato are very much higher than that reported by the IAEA. For all study areas, the annual effective dose from ingestion of tapioca and sweet potato are estimated to be lower than the world average (290 μSv y(-1)).
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Kh
authors.initials: Kh
authors.lastname: Asaduzzaman
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Electronic address: mu_khandaker@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Mayeen Uddin
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Khandaker
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Mahat
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Nor
mesh_terms: D008296:Malaysia; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000378:metabolism*; D011197:Potassium Radioisotopes / Q000378:metabolism; D011883:Radium / Q000378:metabolism; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000378:metabolism*; D013910:Thorium / Q000378:metabolism; D014675:Vegetables / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011197:Potassium Radioisotopes; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; D013910:Thorium; D011883:Radium
keywords: Experimental tapioca field; First study in Malaysia; HPGe γ-ray spectrometry; Higher TFs than world average; Root vegetables; TFs of natural and artificial radionuclides