Analysis of radioactivity in commercially available products aiming to improve health and wellness

• There are products available on the online market that claim to contain unique ‘energies’ that can improve health and wellness by eliminating toxins and pains and energising food and drinking water. We investigated these products by alpha and gamma spectrometry, and the analysis showed that they contained a few to hundreds of kilobecquerels per kilogram of naturally occurring radionuclides from the 232Th and 238U series. The committed effective dose for an adult drinking water that had been in contact with these products just once was estimated to 12 nSv. Considering a worst-case scenario for the workers inhaling the radioactive substance, 1 d of work would result in an effective dose of 0.39 mSv. The product descriptions do not mention the radionuclide content, and concerns are raised for the consumers and workers exposed to these products with no knowledge of the radioactive content.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Radiologi och bildbehandling (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Uranium

Thorium

radioactivity

consumer products

working environment

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)