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Title: Radiation dose to Malaysian infants from natural radionuclides via consumption of powdered milk

Journal Article · · AIP Conference Proceedings
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4915228· OSTI ID:22391550
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603 (Malaysia)

Milk is the basic food stuff for the infants because they generally consume more milk on a daily basis as its minerals and proteins are essential for their growth and development, therefore, it is very important to assess the natural radioactivity levels and the associated dose in the widely consumed powered infant’s milk. As a result, 14 brands of infant’s powdered milk were collected from different supermarkets around Selangor, Malaysia and analysed for {sup 226}Ra, {sup 232}Th and {sup 40}K activities. The obtained mean activity of {sup 226}Ra, {sup 232}Th and {sup 40}K are 3.05±1.84, 2.55±2.48 and 99.1±69.5 Bqkg{sup −1}, respectively. Among the analysed milk samples, the brand from Philippines (Lactogen) showed low level of radioactivity while Singaporean brand (S26 SMA Gold) showed the highest. The estimated mean annual effective doses due to the ingestion of natural radionuclides in the sampled milk are 635 and 111 µSv for infant ≤ 1y and infant 1-2y, respectively. The obtained dose value does not yet pose any significant radiological hazards to the population under investigation comparing with the 1.0 mSvy{sup −1} recommended by ICRP for all ages.

OSTI ID:
22391550
Journal Information:
AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1657, Issue 1; Conference: PERFIK 2014: National Physics Conference 2014, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), 18-19 Nov 2014; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English