Assessment of natural and artificial radioactivity concentrations in infant powdered milk consumed in Albania and estimation of the annual effective dose.

This study evaluates the radiological risk associated with the consumption of infant powdered milk in Albania. Infant powdered milk is the basic foodstuff for their growth and development in many countries around the world. The activity concentration of radionuclides ( ⁴⁰ K, ²²⁶ Ra, ²³² Th and ¹³⁷ Cs) was measured in fourteen types by using the gamma-ray technique. The results indicated that the activity concentration of ⁴⁰ K, ²²⁶ Ra and ²³² Th were detected in all selected samples, whereas ¹³⁷ Cs were not detected in most of them. The activity concentration of ⁴⁰ K, ²²⁶ Ra and ²³² Th varies from 92.83 ± 4.32 to 400.53 ± 17.00 Bq kg ^-1 , 0.80 ± 0.15 to 4.91 ± 0.28 Bq kg ^-1 and 0.19 ± 0.02 to 1.89 ± 0.14 Bq kg ^-1 , respectively. The highest value for ¹³⁷ Cs was found to be 0.36 ± 0.03 Bq kg ^-1 . The average values of Annual Effective Dose (AED) due to consumption of powdered milk were found to be 664.54 ± 31.11 μSv y ^-1 for infants ≤1 year and 138.53 ± 5.40 μSv y ^-1 for infants 1-2 years. The values of dose in this study were lower than the recommended limit of 1 mSv y ^-1 set by WHO/FAO and ICRP for all ages. Therefore, brands of powdered milk are safe, so, these can be normally consumed by infants in Albania.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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