Radiometric analysis of the meat and skin of shrimps and some farmed and marine fish from the Persian Gulf

Authors

• Reza Pourimani * ¹
• Erfan Hatamabadi Farahani ¹
• Mohammad Reza Amiri Siavashani ¹

• Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Arak University, Arak, Iran

Abstract

Nuclear radiation from radioactive elements may cause genetic abnormalities or causes dangerous diseases such as cancer. For this reason, it is essential to measure food contamination with radionuclides, especially seafood prepared from areas contaminated with industrial pollution. In this case, it is necessary to calculate the risk of developing cancer and determine the permissible amount of their consumption. In this work, the specific activity of 4 radioactive elements 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs was measured in 18 meat and skin samples, including 3 species of farmed fish, such as Cyprinus carpio, Pomadasys kaakan and Epinephelus multinotatus from the Persian Gulf, and 2 species of shrimp, including the marine Metapenaeus ensis and the farmed Litopenaeus vannamei. The results indicate that the specific activities of radionuclides in seafood, skins were higher than in meat, and the maximum concentration of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K was observed in the skins of Cyprinus carpio (8.34 Bq/kg), Metapenaeus ensis (31.61 Bq/kg) and Epinephelus multinotatus (404.26 Bq/kg). For all samples, the amount of 137Cs was below the detectable limit.

Keywords

• Gamma spectroscopy
• Shrimp
• Fish
• Radioactive elements