Natural Radionuclide Contents in Human Whole-Body Ashes

Whole-body ashes from nine cremated adult humans were acquired from local mortuaries in Ft. Collins, Colorado (USA) with the consent of next of kin. Ashes of each individual corpse were ground, homogenized and sealed in a steel can for 30 days before gamma-spectroscopy measurements were made to determine the 228Ra, 228Th, 238U, 226Ra and 40K contents. The median values of radionuclide contents in our study subjects were generally higher than literature values in which only a selected set of organs had been analyzed. Direct estimates of natural or man-made radionuclides in whole-body human ashes should be more accurate than estimates based on analysis of small bone or tissue samples that require extrapolation to the entire body.