Agbalagba O. Ezekiel and Agbalagba O. Hannah
Keywords: Nigeria, radioactivity surveillance, canned food, health detriment.
Abstract: High purity Germanium detector (HPGe) have been used to investigate the radioactivity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K , 210Pb and 137Cs in 22 brands of imported canned food products in Nigeria categorized into staple foodstuffs, beef and seafood. The results obtained for staple food stuffs shows a mean activity value of 12.33±3.68, 12.35±4.62,51.48±15.12, 2.65±0.18 and 0.61±0.27 Bq kg-1 for 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, 210Pb and 137Cs respectively, while in beef food products, it is 14.41±4.79, 14.12±4.83,50.44±14.80, 1.11± 0.07 and 0.32±0.20 Bq kg-1 respectively, and for seafood products it is 17.95±5.71, 16.24±5.48,61.65±18.07, 1.17±0.13 and ND Bq kg-1 respectively. The overall results indicate that the natural radio activities in the three categories of canned foodstuffs examined are well below the UNSCEAR and other regulatory bodies recommended permissible limits. The presence of 210Pb and 137Cs in some samples potent some degree of heavy metal contamination of those foodstuffs. All the five radiological risk parameters evaluated are well below International recommended permissible levels. The computed dose to essential organs and tissues indicates a highest dose level of 0.2 mSvy-1 which is well within the 1mSvy-1 recommended permissible level of the public. The calculated collective effective dose equivalent revealed that 97,463,16 of the total population are exposed to radiation from ingestion of the canned foods with adults most impacted. The total health detriment indicates radiological risk ratio of 1:2238 for infants, 1:2583 for children and 1:4238 for adults. From the estimated costdetriment, it is obvious that the economic benefits which is directly proportional to cost of purchase and importation put at about nine billion US dollars annually derived from consuming these imported canned food products is far above the health detriment
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