LEVELS OF RADIOACTIVITY OF NATURAL RADIONUCLIDES AND 137Cs ON CHARACTERISTIC LANDFILLS AND NATURAL HABITATS IN SERBIA

Abstract

Recent studies show us that contamination of environment is usually done by estimating soil and grass. Radionuclides in natural and anthropogenicaly degraded habiats are major human and environmental health concern. The goal of this research was to determine the levels of natural and artificial radioactivity in 8 different habitats 4 samples of substrate of characteristic landfills in Serbia (fly ash deposits, asbestos tailings, lead-zinc-copper mine flotation tailings and sludge dumps) and 4 natural habitats with minimal anthropogenic distrubance (1 sandstone habitat and 3 different salt marshes). A gamma spectrometry was used to measure the activity concentrations. Mean values of specific activity 40K, 226Ra, 232Th and 137Cs were: 392.3 Bq.kg-1, 37.9 Bq.kg-1, 39.0 Bq.kg-1 and 13.3 Bq.kg-1 respectively. The absorbed dose rate and annual effective dose were calculated. These doses are not harmful to the general public's health.