210 Po content in tobacco cigarettes in Thailand

A technique has been modified to measure polonium-210 in tobacco cigarettes manufactured in Thailand. Polonium-210 which is equilibrated with polonium-208 tracer added before processing for chemical separation is isolated and quantitatively deposited on a nickel disc from concentration HCl acid. The plated disc is counted on an alpha spectrometer. The alpha resolution of polonium on nickel disc of the surface barrier detector with active area 300 mm2 was about 30 keV. A chemical blank was processed with each tobacco sample. The average recovery yield was about 70 percent. The lower limit of detection as determined from average chemical blank values 0.058+-0.006 pCi was 0.02 pCi for a 24 hour count. The polonium-210 content in 9 brand names cigarette manufactured in Thailand were varied from 0.121 pCi/g tobacco to 0.282 pCi/g. tobacco, and in 6 brand names shredded tobacco popularize as tobacco cigarette in upcountry were varied from 0.303 pCi/g. tobacco to 0.446 pCi/g. tobacco. In summary polonium-210 content in tobacco cigarettes manufactured in Thailand are ranged from 0.121 pCi/g. tobacco to 0.446 pCi/g. tobacco. The average polonium-210 content for 15 brand names tobacco cigarette is 0.273+-0.10 pCi/g. tobacco