Micro-chemical and radiological characterization using γ-spectrometry and WDXRF spectrometry and annual effective dose of cigarette tobaccos

Several kinds of cigarette tobacco were analyzed to determine contents of essential elements, natural and artificial radioactivity. The contents of essential elements and radionuclides were determined by WDXRF and gamma spectrometry, respectively. Samples were analyzed by WDXRF technique for the following elements: Al, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Br, Sr and In in cigarette tobaccos. In the contents of essential elements, the mean amounts of K (48.891%) and Ca (38.358%) have the highest contents in the cigarette tobaccos. The radionuclide activity concentrations of 137Cs, 238U, 232Th, 40K and 90Sr were measured in cigarette tobaccos. According to radioactivity concentration results, 238U ranged between 0.549 and 6.181 Bq/kg; 232Th between 0.160 and 3.748 Bq/kg; 137Cs between 0.023 and 2.355 Bq/kg; 90Sr between 0.019 and 2.305 Bq/kg and 40K between 2.894 and 56.333 Bq/kg. It was concluded that the annual effective dose due to inhalation for adults (smokers) for 238U varied from 4.97 to 55.94 μSv/y (average 28.04 μSv/y), while for 232Th from 12.48 to 292.41 μSv/y (average 138.65 μSv/y) and for 40K from 18.97 to 370.45 nSv/y (average 139.83 nSv/y). The annual effective dose from 137Cs and 90Sr of Chernobyl origin varied from 0.70 to 71.29 nSv/y (average 29.86 nSv/y) and from 9.49 to 1150.93 nSv/y (average 415.29 nSv/y), respectively.