The effective radium content and radon concentrations in coffee samples

Many people in Iraq and indeed the world choose to drink coffee on a daily basis; accordingly, we planned to find the radium and uranium concentrations in addition to the Radon emission rate to determine if coffee shows the levels of radioactivity that may affect people’s lives.

A nuclear track detector (CR-39) was used to study the natural radioactivity of ten samples of coffee collected from local Iraqi markets.

The effective radium content varied from 0.13 to 0.66 Bq/kg with a mean 0.32 Bq/kg. The mass exhalation rates of radon vary from 0.024 – 0.121/kg .h, with a mean 0.059 Bq/kg .h, while the surface exhalation rates of radon vary from 0.47 – 2.39/2.h, with a mean 1.16 Bq/m2. h. Uranium content varied from 0.10 to 0.54 ppm with a mean value of 0.26 ppm.

Insofar as health effects are concerned, the results have shown that all the samples were entirely safe.