226Ra in Tap and Mineral Water and Related Health Risk in the Republic of Croatia

The presence of 226Ra in drinking water may sometimes make important contribution to natural background radiation exposures. The paper describes the study of 226Ra content in drinking water of Croatia: tap water from the public supply system of several major towns and bottled mineral water from two selected mineral water springs. 226Ra was determined by alpha-spectrometric measurement after radiochemical separation. The radiation doses originating from drinking tap water and bottled mineral water were estimated. The annual dose from consumption of bottled mineral water was compared to that received from ingestion of public system tap water. The study showed that 226Ra content for investigated categories of waters is below the levels at which any unacceptable dose due to ingestion would arise.