To quantify the potential enhancement of naturally-occurring 210Po and 210Pb that may result from the high sulfur-reducing and sulfur-oxidizing regimes associated with hydrothermal vents, sinking particles from both inside and outside vent areas and benthic molluscs grazing on or living near bacterial mats in the vent zone were collected off Milos Island (Aegean Sea) and analyzed for their 210P...

In recent years, 210Po implanted in glass artefacts has been used as an indicator of the mean radon gas concentration in dwellings in the past. Glass artefacts have been selected in many dwellings and the alpha-recoil implanted 210Po concentration has been measured using various techniques. Some of these retrospective techniques use a model to estimate the retrospective radon gas on the basis o...

In the study the activities of polonium 210Po and uranium 234U, 238U radionuclides in moss and lichen samples were determined using the alpha spectrometry. Different lichens and mosses were collected around the Sobieszewo Island (northern Poland) and investigated for potential use as biomonitors for 210Po and 238U deposition. Mosses and lichens have a high efficiency in capturing 210Po and 238U...

210Po, a naturally occurring radioisotope that is ubiquitous in seawater, is especially enriched in proteinaceous tissues of marine organisms and may therefore be useful as a tracer of organic carbon flux in marine systems. Due in part to its biomagnification in marine food chains, 210Po provides the largest radiation dose to any organism under natural conditions. To better understand the exten...

Presented are results of a study on accumulation and distribution of 210Po and 210Pb in the fruitbodies of parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) and risk to human consumer due to exposure from highly radiotoxic decay particles emitted by both radionuclides. Mushrooms were collected from 16 forested places in central and northern regions of Poland. Activity concentrations of 210Po and 210Pb we...

Polonium-210 (210Po) has been analysed in the soft parts of two bivalves species, the scallop Chlamys varia and the common mussel Mytilus edulis, from the Bay of La Rochelle and Ré Island, on the French Atlantic coast. Between those sites, the highest 210Po concentrations have been found in whole scallop soft parts from La Rochelle, reaching 1,181 +/- 29 Bq kg(-1) dry weight (dwt), a size effec...

Documented is an intercalibration (IC) exercise for both 210Po and 210Pb in seawater aliquots distributed between up to eight international laboratories that followed individual protocols. Dissolved and particulate samples were provided by GEOTRACES during two IC cruises at baseline stations in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. Included were surface and/or deep dissolved and particul...

The aim of this work was to determine the concentrations of uranium (234U, 235U, 238U), polonium (210Po) and lead (210Pb) radioisotopes in water samples and to explore the impact of the phosphogypsum stack on the Martwa Wisła waters. The 238U, 210Po and 210Pb concentrations in analyzed water samples reached maximum values of 11.7 ± 0.3, 2.0 ± 0.1 and 3.2 ± 0.1 mBq L-1 and activity ratios were m...

The determination of polonium 210Po in human blood samples is presented and discussed in this paper. The human blood samples were collected from patients of Medical University of Gdańsk with ischaemic heart disease (morbus ischaemicus cordis, MIC). The polonium concentrations in analyzed human blood samples are very differentiated. 210Po is of particular interest in public health and although i...

The natural sources of 210Po and 210Pb in the terrestrial environment are from atmospheric deposition, soil and ground water. The uptake of radionuclides from soil to plant given as the soil transfer factor, varies widely between various types of crops with an average about 0.056±0.003. The atmospheric deposition of 210Pb and 210Po also affect the activity concentrations in leafy plants with a ...