(210)Po in drinking water, its potential health effects, and inadequacy of the gross alpha activity MCL
| Autor: | Ralph L. Seiler |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
Polonium
Water Pollutants Radioactive Environmental Engineering Water Wells chemistry.chemical_element Occurrence data 010501 environmental sciences 01 natural sciences 030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging Radium 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Radiation Monitoring Environmental Chemistry Maximum Contaminant Level Humans Laboratory research Waste Management and Disposal Groundwater 0105 earth and related environmental sciences geography Radionuclide geography.geographical_feature_category Chemistry Drinking Water Environmental engineering Contamination Radiation Exposure Alpha Particles Pollution United States Environmental chemistry Maximum Allowable Concentration Water well |
| Zdroj: | The Science of the total environment. 568 |
| ISSN: | 1879-1026 |
| Popis: | Polonium-210 ((210)Po) is a naturally-occurring, carcinogenic member of the (238)U decay series and the granddaughter of (210)Pb. It has a half life of 138.4days and is rarely found in drinking water at levels exceeding 5mBq/L because it strongly binds to aquifer sediment. When the current US Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) covering (210)Po was promulgated in December 2000, very little was known about its occurrence and the processes responsible for mobilizing it. More is now known about the processes that mobilize (210)Po from sediments and a review of recent occurrence data show that it may not be as rare in the US as the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) thought in 2000. Worldwide, only about 2200 analyses for (210)Po in drinking water were identified, with activities exceeding 500mBq/L being found only in Finland, India, Sweden, and the US. The median of 400 (210)Po analyses from the US is 4.75mBq/L and >10% of the samples exceed 500mBq/L. Current compliance-monitoring regulations in the US essentially guarantee that (210)Po contamination will not be detected except in very contaminated wells. Major problems with the US Gross Alpha Activity MCL include the volatility of (210)Po and extended holding times and sample-compositing methods that can allow the majority of (210)Po in a sample bottle to decay before analysis. In light of new information, the radionuclide rule should be changed and direct measurements of (210)Po should be made in all public-water supply wells to rule out its presence. Much of the important biological and toxicological research on (210)Po is more than four decades old and new laboratory research using modern tools is needed. Biological and epidemiological investigations of known contaminated areas are needed to assess the effect (210)Po exposure is having on animals and humans consuming the water. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full Text from ScienceDirect