FUW TRENDS IN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL
(A Peer Review Journal)
e–ISSN: 2408–5162; p–ISSN: 2048–5170
keywords: Cattle-dung, grass, Lagos, natural radionuclides, Nigeria, rearing-field, soil
Estimating the levels of radiation in the environment is crucial in implementing appropriate controls towards radiological protection. The aim of this study was to determine the radioactivity levels in the grass, soils and dung using a well calibrated thallium-doped sodium iodide scintillator detector. The radioactivity level in the soil ranged from 301.18 to 440.48 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 403.07±33.85 Bqkg-1; 10.19 to 13.05 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 11.47±0.75 Bqkg-1 and 9.12 to 11.97 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 10.44±0.75 Bqkg-1 for 40K, 238U and 232Th. The activity concentrations in the grass samples ranges from 202.41 to 99.57 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 115.46±21.68 Bqkg-1; 11.21 to 8.44 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 10.06±0.75 Bqkg-1 and 10.50 to 3.00 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 8.31±2.76 Bqkg-1 for 40K, 238U and 232Th while the activity concentration in the dung samples ranged from 115.21 to 225.44 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 184.90±40.92 Bqkg-1; 10.13 to 13.17 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 11.50±0.78 Bqkg-1 and 8.12 to 11.28 Bqkg-1 with a mean value of 10.20±0.71 Bqkg-1 for 40K, 238U and 232Th. The mean values of soil-grass transfer factors were 0.29±0.05, 0.88±0.10 and 0.80±0.27 for 40K, 238U and 232Th respectively. The values reported for the soil samples were lower than the world average values of 410.0 Bqkg-1; 35.0 Bqkg-1 and 28.0 Bqkg-1 for 40K, 238U and 232Th. The results indicated a possible low radiological effect on human feeding on cattle beef in the study area.
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