Long-term investigations of radiocaesium activity concentrations in carp in North Croatia after the Chernobyl accident [An article from: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity]

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Description:
Long-term investigations of radiocaesium activity concentrations in carp in the Republic of Croatia are presented. The radiocaesium levels in carp decreased exponentially and the effective ecological half-life of ^1^3^7Cs was estimated to be about 1 year during 1987-2002 and 5 years during 1993-2005. The observed ^1^3^4Cs:^1^3^7Cs activity ratio in carp was found to be similar to the ratio observed in other environmental samples. The concentration factor for carp (wet weight) was estimated to be 128+/-74Lkg^-^1, which is in reasonable agreement with model prediction based on K^+ concentrations in water. Estimated annual effective dose received by adult members of the Croatian population due to consumption of carp contaminated with ^1^3^4Cs and ^1^3^7Cs are small: per capita dose from this source during 1987-2005 was estimated to be 0.5+/-0.2@mSv. Due to minor freshwater fish consumption in Croatia and low radiocaesium activity concentrations in carp, it can be concluded that carp consumption was not a critical pathway for the transfer of radiocaesium from fallout to humans after the Chernobyl accident.