ASSESSMENT OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL RADIOACTIVITY LEVELS IN SOME SEEDS COMMONLY USED IN ALBANIA

All types of foodstuffs contain an amount of radioactivity which can enter into the human body by the ingestion pathway. If radionuclides are deposited in the human body and concentrations of them was increase from foodstuffs, these may cause illness and a number of health hazards. Fifteen samples of different types of seeds commonly used in Albania were collected from the local markets of the city of Tirana. For this reason, the aim of this study was focused in the measurement and analysis of the activity concentrations of natural and artificial radionuclides in the seed samples. The measurements were performed by using the High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector and the activity concentration for radionuclides of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs were determined by gamma-ray spectrometry method. The range of activity concentration of natural radionuclides was found to be from 0.93 ± 0.18 to 10.34 ± 1.17 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra, < MDA to 2.20 ± 0.24 Bq kg−1 for 232Th and 28.35 ± 2.08 to 446.36 ± 19.04 Bq kg−1 for 40K, respectively. The activity concentration of the artificial radionuclide of 137Cs was detected only in four seed samples with highest value of 0.65 ± 0.22 Bq kg−1. The average values of activity concentration for 226Ra and 40K were found 5.35 Bq kg-1 and 178.17 Bq kg-1. The highest values of activity for 232Th and 137Cs were found 2.20 Bq kg-1 and 0.65 Bq kg-1. The results of activity concentration of this study were compared with international reference values and the other literatures. The average values of activity concentration for seed samples were found lower than the worldwide average value, which is defined by UNSCEAR 2000 report. Therefore, the results obtained in this study for radioactivity levels show that the consumption of these seeds are safe and no harmful health effects are expected for peoples living in Albania.