Determination of Pb-210 and Po-210 in mineral waters from Parque das Águas of Lambari and Águas de Contendas - MG

• Grant number: 18/05358-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Regina Damatto
• Grantee: Amanda Shigasi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Econômico (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The exploration of several Brazilian hydromineral resorts that have springs of radioactive mineral waters and consumed by the population that believes in the benefits of this practice in health treatments conducted by bathhouses, despite the lack of scientific evidence of this fact, support the relevance of the present work that is being developed in the Laboratory de Radiometric Ambient of Centro de Metrologia das Radiações - IPEN with the aid of those responsible for the resorts of Lambari and Contendas. Thus, this study aims to determine the concentrations of activity of Pb-210 and Po-210 in the mineral water springs waters of the water parks of Lambari and Contendas, located in the cities of Lambari and Conceição do Rio Verde, MG, for at least 12 months in order to verify the influence of seasonality on the concentration of these radionuclides. For this, the analytical techniques of total beta measurement after radiochemical separation for the radionuclide Pb-210 with determination in gaseous flux proportional detector of and alpha spectrometry after radiochemical separation for the radionuclide Po-210 with determination in alpha spectrometer will be used. With the obtained results of concentration of radionuclides Pb-210 and Po-210 it will be possible to calculate the committed effective dose that the population receives due to ingestion of the mineral waters of the parks. (AU)