ALI ABID ABOJASSIM, LUBNA A. AL-ALASADI, AHMED R. SHITAKE, FAEQ A. AL-TEMEMIE, AFNAN A. HUSAIN
Abstract
Biscuits are an important type of food, widely consumed by babies in Iraq and other countries. This work uses gamma
spectroscopy to measure the natural radioactivity due to long-lived gamma emitters in children’s biscuits; it also estimates
radiation hazard indices, that is, the radium equivalent activity, the representative of gamma level index, the internal hazard index,
and the annual effective dose in children. Ten samples were collected from the Iraqi market from different countries of origin. The
average specific activities for 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K were 9.390, 3.1213, and 214.969 Bq/kg, respectively, but the average of the
radium equivalent activity and the internal hazard index were 33.101 Bq/kg and 0.107, respectively. The total average annual
effective dose from consumption by adults, children, and infants is estimated to be 0.655, 1.009, and 0.875 mSv, respectively.
The values found for specific activity, radiation hazard indices, and annual effective dose in all samples in this study were lower
than worldwide median values for all groups; therefore, these values are found to be safe
لبنى عبد الرسول مهدي | Lubna abdulrasool Mehdi | 2750