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The purpose of the study is to define the level of combined radiological and chemical contamination from the activities of soil and moss samples collected from the Eastern Black Sea region in Turkey and to assess the risk caused by the environmental radioactivity and chemical pollutants. The gamma, gross beta and gross alpha activities were measured in the soil and moss samples. The 238U, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs activity concentrations in the soil samples were measured in the range of 7.0 and 72 Bq kg-1 for 238U, 8.1 and 86 Bq kg-1 for 232Th, 203 and 1190 Bq kg-1 for 40K and 0.71 to 66 Bq kg-1 for 137Cs. In the moss samples, the 137Cs, 40K, 232Th, and 238U activity concentrations were found in the range of 1.03±0.27-24.23±1.39, 137±7-1340±68, 3.58±0.32-5.93±0.44 and 0.88±0.09-2.25±0.23 Bq kg-1, respectively. Contamination from toxic metals in the soils is categorized into enrichment factor, geoaccumulation risk, potential ecological risk and pollution load index. Co, Ni, As and Pb enrichments were determined in the extreme category in the 6 sampling sites. The pollution load index for the selected metals was found to be greater than 1. The geo-accumulation index in one sampling site showed contamination from heavy to severe levels of arsenic and lead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant pathway for human exposure to environmental pollutants is the metal transfer from soil to plants. In this study accumulation of different metals was investigated and natural radioactivity levels were measured in the soil--thyme system. It was found that the soil had higher concentrations of Br, Cr, Mn, Ni, and Pb than the world average and P, Ca, and Zn had higher transfer factors. The natural radioactivity level in the soils is similar to the World average. For thyme samples the average values for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K were found as 22.7 ± 10.9 Bqkg-1, 61.3 ± 19.9 Bqkg-1 and 722 ± 391 Bqkg-1, respectively. The health and ecological risks of soil were evaluated. The total hazard index of the child was 1.453 on average, greater than that of the adult (0.175), primarily due to the contribution of Cr. Ecological risk assessed based on various indices indicated that Pb and Ni show environmental contamination risk. Our findings confirm that metal concentrations in plants are influenced by metal concentrations in soil, and that metal interactions are important for pollution risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]