Dietary intakes of seven elements of importance in radiological protection by Asian population: Comparison with ICRP data

Within the framework of a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, the daily dietary intakes of seven elements by adult populations living in nine Asian countries were estimated. The countries that participated in the study were Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea (Republic of Korea, ROK), and Vietnam and together they represented more than half of the world population. The seven elements studied were calcium, cesium, iodine, potassium, strontium, thorium, and uranium. These elements have chemical and biological similarity to some of the radionuclides abundantly encountered during nuclear power production and therefore data on these elements could provide important information on their biokinetic behavior. Analyses of diet samples for these seven elements were carried out using highly sensitive and reliable analytical techniques. One thousand one hundred and sixty analytical determinations were made on two hundred and twenty samples of typical diets consumed in these countries to estimate the daily intakes of these elements by the adult Asian population. The median daily dietary intakes for the adult Asian population were found to be 0.45 g calcium, 7 μg cesium, 90 μg iodine, 1.75 g potassium, 1.65 mg strontium, 1 μg thorium, and 1 μg uranium. When compared with the intakes proposed for ICRP Reference Man by International Commission for Radiological Protection, these intakes were lower by factors of 0.41 for calcium, 0.7 for cesium, 0.45 for iodine, 0.53 for potassium, 0.87 for strontium, 0.33 for thorium, and 0.52 for uranium. The lower daily intakes of calcium, cesium, and iodine by Asian population could be due to significantly lower-consumption of milk and milk products, which are rich in these elements. The significantly lower intake of calcium in most of the Asian countries may lead to higher uptake of fission nuclide ⁹⁰Sr and could result in perhaps higher internal radiation dose. The use of highly sensitive and reliable analytical methods resulted in accurate and lower intake values obtained for thorium and uranium, which suggest that radiation dose from their ingestion at natural background levels is likely to be lower than what may be concluded from ICRP data.