The activity of 210Pb in cigarette smoked in Kazakhstan.

Abstract

The radon decay product ²¹⁰Pb is a known component of tobacco. In this study, the activity concentration of ²¹⁰Pb in the most popular cigarette brands (six samples) for Kazakhstan consumers was determined by beta spectrometry. The activity levels of ²¹⁰Pb ranged between 2.69 ± 0.27 and 27.42 ± 2.74 mBq per cigarette. Higher activity concentrations for ²¹⁰Pb were found in Sample No.4 and showed an excess of the world average by 1.8 times. The average activity concentrations of ²¹⁰Pb in cigarette tobacco were 10.42 ± 1.04 mBq cig^-1. The daily activities inhaled in the lungs of a smoker, and the resulting effective doses due to cigarette smoking were calculated. Effective doses per year due to cigarette smoking were calculated assuming that 42.13% of the ²¹⁰Pb in tobacco were retained in the lungs of the smokers. It is concluded that for a smoker in Kazakhstan, the average effective dose ranges from 9.1 ± 0.9 μSv/year to 92.8 ± 9.3 μSv/year for a cigarette consumption of one pack of cigarettes per day. The results indicate that the annual effective doses from inhalation of ²¹⁰Pb due to smoking one pack of cigarettes per day are from 7 to 58 times (for different types of cigarettes) greater than the annual effective doses from ingestion of radionuclides via the diet.