Provisional radioactivity surveillance results for 2008

The Food Standards Agency’s carries out surveillance programmes for radioactivity in aquatic and terrestrial Foods. The following tables give the provisional results from analysis of foods around nuclear sites in England and Wales during the period 1 January to 31 March 2008.

For all samples there were no significant changes in concentrations of radioactivity compared to previous years’ results. All the results are well below those that would lead to doses that would exceed the statutory United Kingdom annual dose limit to members of the public of 1mSv (millisievert), European Union limits and Government targets. Consequently, all results were well below any levels that would lead to unacceptable doses as a result of dietary intake.

The methods of sampling and analysis used were essentially those described in section 2 in appendix 1 of the CD from 'Radioactivity in Food and the Environment, 2006' (RIFE-12) published on 14th November 2007 (ISSN 1365-6414).

These data together with those for the other three quarters of 2008 will be validated and the consequent radiation exposures to members of the public assessed. This information will be made available in 'Radioactivity in Food and the Environment, 2008' (RIFE-14) to be published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Environment Agency (EA) and Environment Heritage Service of Northern Ireland (EHSNI) in the autumn of 2009.

For the ease of reading the data the tables have been reformatted in terms of how the data is presented to be more consistent across the two programmes (i.e. the aquatic and terrestrial programmes).

The Food Standards Agency’s carries out surveillance programmes for radioactivity in aquatic and terrestrial Foods. The following tables give the provisional results from analysis of foods around nuclear sites in England and Wales during the period 1 April to 30 June 2008.

For all samples there were no significant changes in concentrations of radioactivity compared to previous years’ results. All the results are well below those that would lead to doses that would exceed the statutory United Kingdom annual dose limit to members of the public of 1mSv (millisievert), European Union limits and Government targets. Consequently, all results were well below any levels that would lead to unacceptable doses as a result of dietary intake.

The methods of sampling and analysis used were essentially those described in section 2 in appendix 1 of the CD from 'Radioactivity in Food and the Environment, 2006' (RIFE-12) published on 14th November 2007 (ISSN 1365-6414).

These data together with those for the other three quarters of 2008 will be validated and the consequent radiation exposures to members of the public assessed. This information will be made available in 'Radioactivity in Food and the Environment, 2008' (RIFE-14) to be published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Environment Agency (EA) and Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in the winter of 2009.

For the ease of reading the data the tables have been reformatted in terms of how the data is presented to be more consistent across the two programmes (i.e. the aquatic and terrestrial programmes).