Chapter 13: Health Risks Linked to Radionuclide Toxicity in Foods

Radionuclides are present in the environment or result from human activities, such as the use of radiation or nuclear technologies. The presence of radionuclides in foods can pose certain health risks, and their toxicity depends on several factors, including the intake of radionuclides, the type of radionuclide, its concentration, and the specific characteristics of the food. Under typical situations, the contributions of internal exposure to the human body from food or water, where only trace concentrations of usually natural radionuclides are present, are minor in most cases. Slightly different situations may occur when food, due to radionuclides from man-made sources used in various applications in industry and medicine or radioactivity induced during radiation sterilization of food, shows an increased level compared with the natural background concentrations. But even here, there is no reason to consider the impact on living organisms to be serious since the increase in exposure levels is only a fraction of exposure due to the natural background.

On the other hand, however, the concentration may be higher in some cases when the food is produced from plants or animals that are heavily contaminated. Specific aspects of radioactivity or, in general, ionizing radiation (hereinafter, simply, radiation), which can be detected even at particularly small levels thanks to the availability of very sensitive instrumentation, have to be stressed here. Radiation monitors are able to measure even extremely insignificant changes within the fluctuation level of natural radiation. When the instrument shows some results close to the background level or even up to several times this level, there is no need to be concerned since the impact of such exposure on a person is almost negligible in comparison with other, much more dangerous situations we face daily in our typical living or working environment caused by many other, much more hazardous agents. The chapter will present an overview of the health risks attributed to the toxicity resulting from exposure to foods contaminated by radionuclides of various origins.