Whole body measurements in Bavarian school children

On behalf of the Bavarian State Ministry for State Development and Environmental Affairs measurements were conducted using the whole body counters at the Institute for Radiation Hygiene (of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection), and the Institute for Radiation Biology (of the GSF Research Centre for Environment and Health). Between September 1988 and July 1990 about 1600 school children from all over Bavaria were investigated for incorporated radiocesium. The aim of these measurements was to evaluate the whole body activity due to regionally differing soil contaminations in Bavaria following the accident in the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl and to assess the effective dose from an intake of radionuclides for the pupils by comparing the results of their WBC measurements with those of reference groups of children which underwent WBC examinations at regular intervals at both institutes since the middle of the year 1986. The results of the WBC measurements of those pupils who had not eaten mushrooms in the days before the measurement are in good agreement with the results of comparative measurements in children living in the regions of Munich and Frankfurt-am-Main. Based on these results an effective dose of 0,2 mSv for the Munich region children and of 0,1 mSv for Nothern Bavarian children can be derived. For children living in the highest contaminated region of Bavaria, i.e. the counties adjacent to the Alps, no comparable reference group results are available, but the amount of incorporated radiocesium is only twice that for pupils in the Munich region. The mean value for the specific activity of radiocesium in South Bavarian school children who consumed mushrooms was found to be twice the value of pupils who did not. This is also true for that group of children whose parents had bought allegedly low contaminated foodstuffs. Other effecs of nutrition habits on the specific whole body activity could not be found. (orig.)