Potential threat to human health during forest fires in the Belarusian exclusion zone

Abstract

Forest fires are of special interest for Belarus because of radioactive contamination caused by the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This work aims to determine the potential activity of long-lived radionuclides in surface air caused by forest fires and to estimate the potential health threat to firefighters. The methodology is based on measurements of radioactivity released by forest fuel materials using a combustion chamber. The emissions were combined with a simple dispersion model to estimate air concentrations and dose to firefighters. The inhalation dose from transuranium elements tend to be an order of magnitude greater than that from Cesium-137. Although there was variability among sites, about half of the total dose was caused by external radiation, as measured by dosimeters. Overall effective radiation dose ranged from 3 to 7 uSv for a 1-h exposure, far below the annual effective dose of 20 mSv for workers and 1 mSv for the public. Although, the risk of exceeding annual effective dose limits is low during small fires, such data are important to inform the population and reduce social and psychological stress caused by popular sources.

Copyright © 2018 American Association for Aerosol Research

EDITOR:

• Nicole Riemer

Acknowledgments

Materials were presented at the 18th Radiochemical Conference (RadChem 2018) held in Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic, on 13–18 May 2018. The authors would specifically like to thank Dr. Brian Amiro for critical comments and helpful suggestions on the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work reported in this article was conducted under the project GR_20160509 “Analysis of stock of transuranium elements in forest fuel materials and assessment of its potential radiation threat during forest fires” supported by Belarusian State Program for basic research.