Study of caesium contamination in foodstuffs in Ghana after the Chernobyl nuclear accident

Fallout radioactivity has been studied in foodstuffs in the Environmental Monitoring Laboratory after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. The study covers the analysis of reference samples of imported foods, mainly meat and milk, for 137Cs and 134Cs contamination using a low-level gamma spectrometer. The purpose of this study is to determine whether it is necessary to control food imports in order to reduce the risk from intake of radionuclides by the Ghanian public resulting from transboundary contamination. Measurement of caesium levels in various foods over a period of seven years has shown contamination to be within the recommended action levels for international trade in foods. The committed effective dose intakes in any single year is far below the 1 mSv annual dose recommended by the ICRP in Publication 60. (author)