2004 Volume 15 Issue 3 Pages 272-274
Gomel oblast in Belarus is one of the areas most seriously affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. While food contamination by radionuclides has been well studied after the accident, no reports describing intakes of stable elements could be found. This paper describes a preliminary investigation on elements intakes. Diets of adults and children in the region were analyzed by ICP-AES and ICP-MS. The daily intakes of elements for Belarusian children were estimated as follows: Ba (1.6mg); Ca (0.44g); Cd (12μg); Co (20μg); Cs (3.3μg); Cu (0.90mg); Fe (29mg); K (2.2g); Mg (0.17g); Mn (2.4mg); Na (2.1g); P (0.65g); Rb (0.83mg); Sr (1.5mg); Th (0.50μg); U (0.36μg); and Zn (5.0mg.) Although a deficiency in Zn intake was found, the intakes of radionuclides such as 232Th and 238U were below levels of other regions.
