Assessment of natural radionuclides in cooking salts available in Kurdistan region-Iraq

Abstract

Eighteen local and imported salt samples were collected in markets of Kurdistan region. The cooking salt as an essential foodstuff element in meals of population in all over the world has been examined for radioactivity assessment. Gamma ray spectroscopy of NaI (Tl) was used to obtain the spectra and measuring the specific radionuclide activities of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in salt samples. The related radiological indices of radium equivalent (Raeq), indoor absorbed dose, indoor annual effective dose equivalent (Ein), the internal index (Hin), annual committed effective dose (Eing) and excess life time cancer (ELCR) were calculated which were below the world safety recommendation values declared by UNSCEAR2000 and WHO. Statistics of Pearson correlation were applied to the obtained data to establish the correlation between primordial radionuclide’s and radiological hazards.

Keywords

• radioactivity
• nai(tl) detector
• salt
• cancer risk
• annual dose