TITLE:
Determination of Radioactive Contaminant 137Cs (Fission Product) and Comparison with Natural 40K Present in Mexican Strawberries
AUTHORS:
Fridda Concepción Fuentes Gama, Juan Manuel Navarrete Tejero, Alejandro Ramírez Chávez, Miguel Ángel Zúñiga Pérez
KEYWORDS:
Radioactive Contamination
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.10 No.7,
July
27,
2022
ABSTRACT: Several previous papers have been published about
radioactive contamination in Mexican soil, marine sediments and foodstuffs.
Ever since, results have been according to expectation, mainly consisting of
natural isotopes in small concentration. Continuous research leads with the surprising finding of fission product 137Cs
(t1/2 = 30 years) in strawberries produced in different
states, about 2000 km away from each other. Never before, such
contaminant has been observed in foodstuffs, produced in this country. The aim
of this work is to report the presence of 137Cs in Mexican
strawberries and compare the activity of such contaminant with the natural
radioactivity of 40K (t1/2 = 1.28 × 109 years), through gamma spectrometry.
Eventually, the specific activity of 137Cs observed in samples FM4,
FM5 and FBC is respectively 0.7, 0.8 and 0.3 Bq/kg. The limits established in
CODEX-STAN-193-1995 for 137Cs are 1000 Bq/kg, so all samples meet
the recommendation. It’s presence now in vegetables
result with enough interest to be known and considered in the near future to
measure the possible effect that radioactive contamination could reach after
nearly 80 years from second world war, where no nuclear test has been
performed, nuclear accident occurred, neither nuclear weapon has ever been used.