Age-dependent dynamics of caesium radionuclide content in inhabitants of the Bryansk region, Russia: A seven-year study

From 1991 to 1998, workers from Russia and Sweden, performed measurements to estimate the internal exposure of the inhabitants in some villages of the Bryansk region which were severely contaminated with 134Cs and 137Cs after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in 1986. The measurements of the radionuclide content in the human bodies were performed with two techniques: whole-body counting and an indirect method based on measurement of 137Cs and creatinine concentration in urine samples. The measurement results have shown that 134Cs and 137Cs content in rural inhabitants depends both on natural and social factors. It is also shown that caesium radionuclides content in children increases with age and reaches the maximum values in adults. Mean whole body content of 134Cs and 137Cs in men is higher by a factor of 1.7 than in women. The method of selective measurement of caesium radionuclides concentration in collective urine samples may be successfully applied for estimation of average whole body content in groups of persons. (author)