Radium and 40K in Algerian bottled mineral waters and consequent doses

Concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra and ⁴⁰K in the five most popularAlgerian bottled mineral waters have been found to be 13.9 to148.9 mBq l^–1, 7.2 to 52.9 mBq l^–1 and <0.07to 2.19 Bq l^–1, respectively. Ratios of ²²⁶Ra to ²²⁸Raactivities ranged from 1.0 to 13.66 with a mean of 5.62. Theannual effective doses due to ingestion of these waters havebeen estimated for three age categories (infants, children andadults) using the measured activities of these radionuclidesand assuming the World Health Organisation's default water intakerate. Annual doses for children and adults have been found tobe well below the 0.1 mSv y^–1 reference dose level, whereasfor the most vulnerable group the annual effective dose fromall the waters exceeds the reference value and contributes 12%to the mean annual dose from natural exposure.