Estimation of Annual Effective Dose Due to Ingestion of Natural Radionuclides in Cattle in Tin Mining Area of Jos Plateau, Nigeria

Contamination of land could occur during the extraction and handling of materials containing high levels of naturally occurring radionuclide materials. These radionuclides find their ways into the food chain. The activity concentrations of natural radionuclides 40K, 226Ra, and 232Th in heart, liver, kidney, lungs, spleen and beef of cattle slaughtered and consumed in a tin mining area of Jos Plateau, Nigeria were determined by gamma ray spectroscopy method. The activity concentration of 40K is the highest in all the samples. The annual effective dose to man through the ingestion of the radionuclides in the organs was estimated. The mean annual effective doses calculated are 35.35 ± 13.84, 57.89 ± 38.27 and 46.93 ± 10.28 μSv∙y−1 for heart, liver and kidney, respectively. Those of lungs, spleen and meat are 28.44 ± 15.70, 48.34 ± 28.85 and 41.24 ± 3.56 μSv∙y−1, respectively. These are of the order of two magnitudes higher than those obtained for food in Abeokuta, Nigeria.