Yearly effective dose due to consumption of wild black fungus grow in southern Iraq assessed by measuring of radionuclide concentrations

Wide range of studies have been conducted around the word focusing on the evaluation of radionuclide concentrations in foodstuff. This work focusing on the estimation of the annual effective dose due to radionuclide activity in Iraqi wild fungus, specifically black desert truffles. The fungus have been collected from the desert of As Samawah governorate in the south of Iraq as it is grow in a large amount. The average activity concentrations for 238 U, 232 Th, 40 K and 137 Cs were 3.95, 2.53, 260.36 and 1.78 Bqkg −1 respectively in all 10 collected truffle samples. The average annual effective doses from 238 U ingestion were 0.36 and 0.54, from 232 Th ingestion were 1.16 and 1.47, from 40 K ingestion were found to be 3.23 and 319.20 and from 137 Cs were 0.05 and 0.04 μ Sv year −1 in adults and children respectively. The measured values were less than the assessed world mean value from the exposure caused by natural radionuclide ingestion that documented in the literature (0.29 mSv year −1 ).