Abstract
Iodine is an essential element and plays an important role in thyroid function. It is known that transfer of radioiodine into thyroid gland is influenced by the coexisting stable iodine. Therefore, it is important to study the iodine levels in diet. In order to estimate the dietary intake of iodine by Japanese we have determined iodine concentrations in 30 total diet samples. The samples were collected within the framework of an IAEA/RCA project. From the analytical results we estimated the daily intake of iodine through foodstuffs. The range of iodine intake was 0.036 - 8.4 mg/day. The high value might be caused by the consumption of seaweeds. The mean and median values are 0.93 mg/d and 0.29 mg/d, respectively. These values are higher than the value recommended by ICRP (0.2 mg/day). However, about 30% cases were lower than the ICRP value. [J Radiat Res 44:432 (2003)]
