Natural radionuclides in Italian diet and their annual intake

This study was dedicated to the evaluation of the background activity concentration of natural radionuclides as 228Ra and 228Th of 232Th family, 226Ra of 238U family and 40K in the Italian daily diet. These radionuclides were determined by gamma spectrometry. 40K activity concentration, in the samples taken into account in the present paper, ranged between 70.5 (milk) and 181.1 Bq kg ww −1 (pasta), 226Ra activity concentration ranged between 1.1 (milk) and 5.7 Bq kg ww −1 (pasta), 228Ra and 228Th activity concentration, in the same samples, ranged between 0.7 (milk) and 3.7 Bq kg ww −1 (pasta) and between 1.4 (milk) and 6.1 Bq kg ww −1 (flours) respectively. The annual intake of every radionuclide from foodstuffs ingestion was also calculated. The 94–95 % of the total intake comes from 40K. For adults and children, the highest activity intake of all radioisotopes was from grain products, for infants it was from milk products.