Meat and poultry consumption contribution to the natural radionuclide intake of the inhabitants of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

The mean activity concentrations of the naturally occurring radionuclides (226Ra, 228Ra and 40K) in three types of meat (goat meat, beef and pork) from stock animals as well as free-range and intensive poultry raised within the OAU environment of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, were measured by means of a well-calibrated high-purity germanium detector. The specific activities of 226Ra in the three types of meat ranged from 1.11 to 5.83 Bq kg−1 with a mean of 3.10±1.52 Bq kg−1. 228Ra was not detectable in both beef and pork but had a range of 1.53–1.63 Bq kg−1 with a mean of 1.58±0.30 Bq kg−1 in goat meat while 40K recorded an average specific activity of 360.00±54.20 Bq kg−1 for the various samples of meat. The mean activity values of 226Ra, 228Ra and 40K for the poultry were 2.59±0.48, 0.78±0.13 and 265.01±15.90 Bq kg−1, respectively. The results obtained for the daily radionuclide intake of the various meat types showed that those of 226Ra ranged from 0.4 to 8.1 mBq d−1 with a mean of 4.9±0.4 mBq d−1. Since 228Ra was not detectable in beef and pork its daily intake could not be estimated. However, a mean value of intake of 2.2±0.4 mBq d−1 was obtained for goat meat. The values of 40K intake ranged from 150.0 to 672.7 mBq d−1 with an average of 455.5±19.0 mBq d−1. The mean daily intakes of 226Ra, 228Ra and 40K for the two types of poultry were 6.15±0.70, 1.9±0.3 and 633.4±38.0 mBq d−1, respectively.