Natural Radioactivity in some Local Food Samples Consumed by Children in Iraq

Zahrah Baqer Mohammed¹, Iman Sabah Obai², Noor Ali Jaafar³, Ali Abid Abojassim³* and Ahmed Ali Ghali Al-Khayfawee⁴

¹General Directorate for Education in Najaf/ Department for Vocational Education in Najaf, Iraq

²Department of Medical physics, Jabir ibn Hayyan university for medical and pharmaceutical sciences, Faculty Medical Sciences,  Al-Najaf, Iraq

³Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Kufa, Al-Najaf, Iraq

⁴Amal Al-Hayat Hospital, Al-Najaf, Iraq

Corresponding Author E-mail: ali.alhameedawi@uokufa.edu.iq

This work was directed towards studying the specific activity of natural radioactivity (⁴⁰k, ²³⁸U, and ²³²Th) in 13 samples of foodstuff that are consumed by children in Iraq. The foodstuffs such as biscuit, cocoa powder, milk powder, indomie, and soup were collected from markets in the Al-Najaf governorate. This food was analyzed in the laboratory, which belongs to the University of Kufa, using a scintillation detector (NaI(Tl)) detector (gamma spectrometer systems) and provided with software MESTRO-32.  The results found that, the specific activity for potassium-40 were ranged from 52.11 Bq/kg to 619.61 Bq/kg, while the specific activity for uranium-238 ranged between 4.11 Bq/kg to 18.9 Bq/kg, but for thorium-232 were ranged from 0.39 Bq/kg to 12.06 Bq/kg. The specific activity for ⁴⁰K, ²³⁸U, and ²³²Th for all samples was found to be within the worldwide range for radioactivity in food 420, 30, and 45 Bq/kg, respectively, except for cocoa powder samples have specific activity for ⁴⁰K higher than worldwide. This study has shown that the levels of radioactivity in most samples of children food were within the limit value of organization UNSCEAR. Finally, the present study will provide data about natural radioactivity in food used by children in all governorates of the country to protect all children.

Children; Foodstuff; Gamma Emitters; Iraq; Natural Radioactivity

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