Distribution of radionuclides in soil and tobacco plants and effects of physicochemical parameters in tobacco growing some places of Karnataka state India - an overview

The distribution of radionuclides in soil, crops and tobacco plants and effects of physicochemical parameters on radionuclides are plays an important role in Environmental science, Geophysics and Geo-Scientific research. The measurement of these radionuclides release to the environment is important for radiation protection point of view. The food crops and tobacco plants absorbs naturally occurring radionuclides through leaves, stem and roots by soil, water and air. These radionuclides enters the human body through food and smoking of cigarettes as a results humans exposing to the serious health consequences. Due to this importance we have to select the tobacco growing some places of Karnataka state for measurement of radionuclide in soil and tobacco plants parts. The 25 soil and tobacco plant samples from different regions of the study area before cigarette producing and smokeless use was studied in order to find out any association between the uptake of the radionuclides from soil by tobacco plants and equivalent effective dose induced to the smoker from cigarette and smokeless use of tobacco due to naturally occurring radioactive nuclides such as radium (²²⁶Ra), thorium (²³²Th), polonium, (²¹⁴Po) lead (²¹⁰Pb) and potassium (⁴⁰K). These radionuclides were estimated by Gamma-ray and Alpha Spectrometry with high resolving and efficiency of HPGe scintillation detector. The transfer factor of radionuclide from soil to tobacco plants, the annual effective inhalation dose to the lungs for an adult smoker, radiological hazard indices parameters and estimated Lung Cancer Risk assessment (ELCR) caused by the smoker were estimated and analyzed systematically in this paper. The physicochemical parameters were estimated by standard method and Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. The influence and effects of physicochemical parameters on radionuclides were systematically analyzed and discussed in this paper. The correlation between radionuclides and physicochemical parameters were estimated and analyzed. These results were compared with the reported values in the literature from of the other locations of the globe. (author)