Host: The Japan Radiation Research Society, Chairman of the 52nd Annual Meeting, Toshiteru Okubo (Radiation Effects Research Foundation)
Transfer factor (TF), one of the traditional parameters used for predicting the transfer of radionuclides in the environment, is still useful for dose assessment of human as well as of environmental biota, because of its simplicity. As soil – plant TFs are studied and collected mainly in Europe, the data available for another environments are quite limited. Considering the increase need of nuclear power stations in Asian countries, collection of soil–plant TFs in Asian environments are urgently required. In this study, commonly consumed leafy vegetables in Sri Lanka and associated soils from two farming systems, organic and conventional, were collected and analyzed for major and trace elements by using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). About 45 and 30 elements were determined for the 20 soil and 80 crop samples, respectively. In most case, K showed the highest TF, followed by P, Ca, Mg, Rb, Mo, and Mn, which were higher than 1.0 (dry plant / dry soil ratio). TFs of most elements in Sri Lankan leafy vegetables were higher than those in Japanese green vegetables. The values were compared also with the values in IAEA database (TRS-364). Difference between two farming systems was discussed too.
