Assessment of doses from ingestion of radionuclides ⁴⁰K, ¹³⁷Cs, ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th in edible commercial mushrooms from Taiwan

This study analyzed activity concentration and annual effective dose of radionuclides ⁴⁰K, ¹³⁷Cs, ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th of 44 mushrooms collected from local markets in Taiwan. The ⁴⁰K activity concentrations were 1570 ± 150 Bq/kg-dw (Agaricus bisporus) > 1084 ± 183 Bq/kg-dw (Flammulina velutipe) > 736 ± 150 Bq/kg-dw (Lentinula edodes). The activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra were 5.04 ± 2.43, 4.00 ± 2.40 and 3.43 ± 2.69 Bq/kg-dw, and ²³²Th were 3.96 ± 2.18, 3.86 ± 1.43 and 2.90 ± 1.99 Bq/kg-dw for F. velutipe, L. edodes and A. bisporus, respectively. In seven of the 44 samples, ¹³⁷Cs activity concentrations were detected, and the samples had an average of 1.55 ± 1.75 Bq/kg-dw. The total annual effective dose ranged from 0.90 to 3.50 μSv/y, with an average of 1.94 ± 0.62 μSv/y at an ingestion rate of 0.235 kg-dw/y. (authors)