title: Activity concentration measurements of selected radionuclides in seals from Canadian Arctic.
abstract: The activity concentrations of naturally occurring radionuclides (such as226Ra,210Pb and210Po) and long lived137Cs were measured in a total of 119 tissue samples (43 blubber, 43 liver, and 33 muscle samples) from 40 ringed seals and 4 bearded seals collected in the Arviat area of Canada during the fall of 2014. Activity concentration of210Po was measured in all seal liver and muscle samples individually. The average210Po activity concentrations were 25 ± 7.6 Bq/kg fresh weight (fw) in muscle and 211 ± 58 Bq/kg fw in liver for ringed seals, and 20 ± 6.1 Bq/kg fw in muscle and 231 ± 150 Bq/kg fw in liver for bearded seals. Due to insufficient sample material for most samples collected, gamma counting for radioactive caesium and radiochemical analysis for226Ra and210Pb were performed for pooled samples. Activity concentrations of210Pb and226Ra were generally below detection limits. While134Cs activity concentration was not detectable,137Cs activity concentration was detected in muscle and liver samples. On average, the137Cs activity concentrations were 0.25 ± 0.05 and 0.12 ± 0.04 Bq/kg fw in muscle and liver samples of ringed seals, and 0.11 ± 0.02 and 0.10 ± 0.03 Bq/kg fw in muscle and liver samples of bearded seals, respectively. Neither210Po nor137Cs were detected in the blubber samples. This study confirmed that210Po is the dominant contributor to radiation doses resulting from seal consumption. Man-made contaminant137Cs only contributes less than 0.01% of the total ingestion dose obtained from Arviat seals.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada, 775 Brookfield Road, Ottawa, Canada. Electronic address: jing.chen@hc-sc.gc.ca.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada, 775 Brookfield Road, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: Weihua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada, 775 Brookfield Road, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: Baki
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sadi
authors.affiliation: Aquatic Contaminants Research Division, Environmental Canada, Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Xiaowa
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Aquatic Contaminants Research Division, Environmental Canada, Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Derek C G
authors.initials: DCG
authors.lastname: Muir
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001110:Arctic Regions; D002170:Canada; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D046048:Seals, Earless / Q000378:metabolism*; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive
keywords: Marine fish; Natural radionuclides; Radioactive caesium