The activity of 210Pb in cigarette smoked in Kazakhstan

The radon decay product Pb-210 is a known component of tobacco. In this study, the activity concentration of Pb-210 in the most popular cigarette brands (six samples) for Kazakhstan consumers was determined by beta spectrometry. The activity levels of Pb-210 ranged between 2.69 +/- 0.27 and 27.42 +/- 2.74 mBq per cigarette. Higher activity concentrations for Pb-210 were found in Sample No.4 and showed an excess of the world average by 1.8 times. The average activity concentrations of Pb-210 in cigarette tobacco were 10.42 +/- 1.04 mBq cig(-1.) The daily activities inhaled in the lungs of a smoker, and the resulting effective doses due to cigarette smoking were calculated. Effective doses per year due to cigarette smoking were calculated assuming that 42.13% of the Pb-210 in tobacco were retained in the lungs of the smokers. It is concluded that for a smoker in Kazakhstan, the average effective dose ranges from 9.1 +/- 0.9 mu Sv/year to 92.8 +/- 9.3 mu Sv/year for a cigarette consumption of one pack of cigarettes per day. The results indicate that the annual effective doses from inhalation of 210Pb due to smoking one pack of cigarettes per day are from 7 to 58 times (for different types of cigarettes) greater than the annual effective doses from ingestion of radionuclides via the diet.