226Ra u flaširanim vodama hrvatskih proizvođača

Production of bottled water in Croatia largely follows European trends. Natural spring or well waters contain natural radionuclides, especially members of naturally occurring uranium decay series. Higher concentration levels of radionuclides can have negative impact on human health, therefore constant monitoring is required. Negative impacts on human health can be limited by dose assessment. Due to the higher consumption of bottled waters in Croatia, this research deals with specific activity of 226Ra in bottled mineral and spring waters produced by domestic producers. Random samples of waters were obtained in shopping centres in Zagreb within a month?s time. 226Ra was determined by alpha-spectrometric measurement after radiochemical separation. Research results show that the specific activity of 226Ra in all tested samples does not exceed the maximum activity concentration (1000 mBq/L) recommended by the World Health Organisation. The highest effective dose estimated on the basis of research results is less than the maximum recommended effective dose (0.1 mSv/year) that human being can consume by water intake