Investigations of Natural Radioactivity levels and Assessment of radiological hazard of Tea samples collected from local market in Ethiopia

TL;DR

This study measures natural and artificial radionuclide levels in Ethiopian tea samples, assesses radiological hazards, and compares findings with international safety standards to evaluate potential health risks.

Contribution

It provides new data on radionuclide concentrations in Ethiopian tea and evaluates associated radiological hazards using standard indices.

Findings

40K activity concentration increases faster than other NORM in tea.

Radium equivalent and hazard indices are within international safety limits.

Natural radioactivity levels vary among different tea brands.

Abstract

In this study, the activity concentration of natural ( 238 U, 232 Th, 40 K) and artificial radionuclides (137 Cs) were measurements in six different brands of tea have been collected from local market in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa city). have been analyzed by a detection system consisting of High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector and multichannel analyzer. The average activity concentrations were nuclide M D A report 238U, 232Th and 40 K respectively. The mean values were found 3.66$ \pm$0.47, 18.28$\pm $2.4 and 582.59$ \pm $29.64 Bq/kg respectively. The activity concentration of 40K is increasing faster than the other NORM for Tea. In order to evaluate the radiological hazard of the natural radioactivity, radium equivalent (Raeq ), the external hazard index (Hex), internal hazrd index (Hin) , the total absorbed dose rate (D), the annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) have been calculated and compared with the international acceptable value.