Using tobacco plants as biomonitors of contaminated norm areas

• Published in: Journal of radiological protection Vol. 33; no. 1; p. 81
• Main Authors: Máté, B, Horváth, M, Somlai, J, Kovács, T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-03-2013
• Subjects: Biological Assay - methods; Lead Radioisotopes - analysis; Lead Radioisotopes - pharmacokinetics; Nicotiana - metabolism; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Polonium - analysis; Polonium - pharmacokinetics; Radiation Monitoring - methods; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive - analysis; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive - pharmacokinetics
• ISSN: 1361-6498
• DOI: 10.1088/0952-4746/33/1/81

One of the largest biomonitoring tasks is the assessing and environment monitoring of radiological wastes produced by mining. Po-210 and Pb-210 are easy to mobilise even in a weak acidic medium and as we know the biological behaviour and accumulation capacity of tobacco, this could be a suitable option for biomonitoring. During our work the Pb-210 and Po-210 concentration values of tobacco parts and soil samples originating from a Hungarian remediated uranium mine site were determined. The source preparation was spontaneous deposition following combined acidic leaching with a Po-209 tracer; the detection was carried out with a semiconductor ('PIPS') detector alpha-spectrometer. According to the results for the tobacco plant parts and soil samples, secular equilibrium could be found between the Pb-210 and Po-210 isotopes, and the isotope content of the lower leaves of the tobacco plants was in correlation with the isotope concentration of the soil; therefore, the measurement of the activity concentration is suitable for tracing smaller levels of washing out. The Po-210 activity concentration values of tobacco (average: 15.5 ± 3.6 Bq kg(-1)) and soil (average: 60.1 ± 15.2 Bq kg(-1)) samples originating from the area investigated compared with samples from another part of Hungary, Balatonalmádi (tobacco: 12.5 ± 1.0 Bq kg(-1), soil: 57.0 ± 4.7 Bq kg(-1)), do not show significant radionuclide migration.