Internal exposure from the ingestion of foods contaminated by 137Cs after the Chernobyl accident. Report 1. General model: ingestion doses and countermeasure effectiveness for the adults of Rovno Oblast of Ukraine.

The Chernobyl accident, which occurred in April 1986, resulted in the atmospheric release of about 70-100 PBq of {sup 137}Cs. This paper examines the doses to the adult population of the northern part of Rovno Oblast, Ukraine, from ingestion of {sup 137}Cs. Fallout of {sup 137}Cs in these regions was lower than in other regions of Ukraine. However, the transfer of {sup 137}Cs from soil to milk in the region considered is high (up to 20 Bq L{sup -1} per kBq m{sup -2}) and results in the predominance of internal doses compared to those from external exposure. Numerous measurements of {sup 137}Cs soil deposition, {sup 137}Cs milk contamination, and {sup 137}Cs body burden have been made in the area and form the basis of a general model of internal exposure from the ingestion of foods contaminated by {sup 137}Cs. This paper has two main purposes. The first is to develop the general phenomenological description of the process leading to internal exposure from the ingestion of {sup 137}Cs contaminated foods in the situation where different countermeasures are realized. The second is to apply the model for the adult population of the northern part of the Rovno Oblast (first report) for themore » limited time period of up to six years after the accident. The doses actually received by the adults are estimated to be four to eight times smaller than the doses calculated for the situation without countermeasures. 35 refs., 12 figs., 11 tabs.« less