Measurements of 210Pb and 210Po in Japanese human hair

210Pb and 210Po in human hair have been measured to serve as an aid in order to estimate the dietary intake and body burden ot these radionuclides of Japanese. The 210Po concentrations found in 83 hair samples were ranging from 4.0 to 59.3 mBq/g with a mean (median) value of 18.2±12.2 (14.9) mBq/g as compared to the 210Pb concentrations from 0.7 to 6.5 mBq/g with a mean (median) value of 2.3±1.1 (2.0) mBq/g. The 210Po/210Pb activity ratios (mean: 8.7±5.1, median: 7.1) were surprisingly higher compared with the available literature value of about 2. The high concentration of 210Po in human hair of Japanese may be due to the ingestion of animal protein mainly in the form of seafood. (author) 10 refs.; 2 figs.; 5 tabs