Radiation doses of Swiss population from external sources

The outdoor radiation exposure of the population in Switzerland from external sources results from cosmic background as well as from natural and artificial ground radiation. The geographical distribution of these components and of the total dose rate are represented on maps consisting of 2 kmx2 km grid cells. The average dose rate on Swiss territory outdoors is 147 nSv/h (1.29 mSv/a). The distributions are then related to the population density distribution by GIS application. The population is exposed to an average dose rate of 108 nSv/h (0.95 mSv/a) per capita which is just below the threshold for man-made dose rate given by national regulation. The lower value (relative to the country average 147 nSv/h) arises from the fact that most of the population lives north of the Alps where the lithology is dominated by rocks of relatively low radioactivity and where the cosmic radiation is low relative to the Alps.     

Radiation measurements and radioecological aspects of fallout from the cherbonyl reactor accident

Fallout from the Chernobyl reactor accident has been monitored for about one year in Thessaloniki in Northern Greece. Fifteen different short-lived, three relatively long- and one long-lived fission products were identified in air, precipitation, soil, grass and milk samples. The iodine-131 and cesium-137 concentrations in air reached 6·5 and 3 Bq m⁻³ respectively, on 6 May, 1986. The external exposure dose rate rose to five times the normal background level. It was estimated that the accumulated dose equivalent to the adult thyroid from inhaled iodine-131 averaged 96 μSv, while the body burden from inhaled radiocesium nuclides averaged 2 μSv, 1000 times lower than that corresponding to the estimated dose equivalent from ingestion of foodstuff, which averaged 2 mSv for the first year after the accident.     

G.V. Shlyakhtin,E.V. Zav'yalova,and V.G. Tabachishin,Ptitsy Saratova i ego okrestnostei: Sostav,okhrana i ekologicheskoe znachenie(Birds of Saratov and Its Vicinity: Composition,Protection, and Ecological Significance), Saratov: Saratov. Gos. Univ., 1999

Russian Journal of Ecology -     

Radiation effects in wild terrestrial vertebrates - the EPIC collection

The paper presents data on radiation effects in populations of wild vertebrate animals inhabiting contaminated terrestrial ecosystems. The data were extracted from the database "Radiation effects on biota", compiled within the framework of the EC Project EPIC (2000-2003). The data collection, based on publications in Russian, demonstrates radiation effects in the areas characterized with high levels of radionuclides (Kyshtym radioactive trace; "spots" of enhanced natural radioactivity in the Komi region of Russia; territories contaminated from the Chernobyl fallout). The data covers a wide range of exposures from acute accidental irradiation to lifetime exposures at relatively low dose rates. Radiation effects include mortality, changes in reproduction, decrease of health, ecological effects, cytogenetic effects, adaptation to radiation, and others. Peculiarities of radiation effects caused by different radionuclides are described, also the severity of effects as they appear in different organisms (e.g. mice, frogs, birds, etc.).