Studies of radioactive contaminations and heavy metal contents in vegetables and fruit from Lublin, Poland

This paper presents studies of the level of some gamma radioactive elements and heavy metals in fruits, vegetables and plants from Lublin.Potassium K-40 isotope was the most prevalent element in the examined samples. It concentrated mainly in aboveground parts of some vegetables, for example in parsley and carrots haulm and in leaves of red beet and leek (from 1135 to 1940 Bq/kg). Considerably lower concentrations of this element were noticed in the roots of the vegetables, ranging from 210 to 448 Bq/kg of dry matter. In examined fruit, the 40K contents ranged from 490 to 510 Bq/kg. Transfer factors of K-40, from the soil to the vegetables and fruit, ranged from 0.3 to 2.9. The natural isotopes of uranium series account for 17% of total activity, whereas thorium series was 19-20% of this activity. In fact, in examined fruit (raspberry, red and black currants) and roots of the vegetables caesium Cs-137 was not detected, whereas some amounts of it were noticed in green parts of vegetables, from 4.0 to 8.4 Bq/kg of dry matter. The transfer factor of Cs-137 from the soil to examined samples ranged from 0.03 to 0.4. In all studied samples examined on heavy metal contents no valid safety standards for these elements were exceeded.