Radiological health risk assessment and transfer factors of natural and artificial radionuclides for cowpea, okra, and maize grown in Antalya, Türkiye

The goal of this paper is to examine radiological health risk parameters and transfer factors (TFs) of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K, and ¹³⁷Cs from soil to seed and leaf for cowpea, okra, and maize grown in the neighborhood of Çakırlar in Antalya, Türkiye. A high-purity germanium detector was used to obtain gamma-ray spectra of 10 samples. The TF from soil to seed in white maize is the lowest for natural radionuclides. The TF from soil to seed for ¹³⁷Cs is the lowest in cowpea. The TFs of natural and artificial radionuclides from soil to leaf are the highest in cowpea, and they are the smallest in okra. The mean values of absorbed gamma dose rate, annual gonadal dose equivalent, total annual dose equivalent, and excess lifetime cancer risk of the studied samples are higher than the world average value, whereas the radium equivalent activity of the samples analyzed is smaller than the world mean value. The mean value of gamma representative levels of examined samples is greater than the limit value, while the mean value of the internal hazard index and the external hazard index is smaller than the permissible limit value.