Pourahmad Jalal, Motallebi Abbasali, Asgharizadeh Farid, Eskandari Gholam Reza, Shafaghi Bijan
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, P O Box 14155-6153, Iran.
Environ Toxicol. 2008 Oct;23(5):583-90. doi: 10.1002/tox.20407.
Gamma-ray spectrometric analyses were performed on sediment samples from the coast of Khuzestan province (south west of Iran, neighbor to Iraq and Kuwait) to study the concentration of natural as well as man-made radioactive sources. The coast of Khuzestan, which extends for approximately 400 km is mainly soft areas of mud flats within different ecosystems including river mouth, estuaries, creeps, and small bays. Suspended material from the Iranian rivers including Arvand (Karun), Bahmanshir, Jarrahi, and Zohreh has settled to form these extensive soft areas. Eighty three samples were taken at different points along the coast in undisturbed areas at intervals of about 5 km since Fall 2005 to Winter 2006. Collection was carried out during low-tide, where it was possible to collect sediments from the wet region that was covered by sea water during the high tide. At each of the sample sites, a sampling area of about 1 m(2) was considered. All samples were of a muddy nature, and were left to dry in open air before drying in the oven at 105 degrees C for 2-3 days to remove all water content. The average activity concentration of the radionuclides (226)Ra (30 Bq/Kg), (232)Th (11 Bq/kg), (238)U (18 Bq/kg), and (137)Cs (2.6 Bq/kg) along the shore of Khuzestan reaches are much less than the values commonly assigned as the world average. Nevertheless in case of (40)K which is a long lived naturally occurring radionuclide, the result (481 Bq/kg) was higher than the world average which could be due to a large Kuwaiti oil spill and also fallout and deposition of tremendous amount of fly ashes which resulted from ignited Kuwaiti oil fields during the 2nd Persian Gulf war (1990-91). For man-made (137)Cs and naturally occurring (232)Th, the western and eastern parts of Khuzestan shore showed higher concentrations than the middle part (Khooriat or creeps). For the long lived naturally occurring radionuclide (40)K and Gulf war (238)U (anti armor shells), there were no significant differences (P < 0.05) among the three regions.
对胡齐斯坦省（伊朗西南部，与伊拉克和科威特接壤）海岸的沉积物样本进行了伽马射线光谱分析，以研究天然和人造放射性源的浓度。胡齐斯坦海岸绵延约400公里，主要是不同生态系统内的泥滩软质区域，包括河口、海湾、河汊和小海湾。来自伊朗河流（包括阿尔万德河（卡伦河）、巴赫曼希尔河、贾拉希河和佐赫雷河）的悬浮物质沉淀下来，形成了这些广阔的软质区域。自2005年秋季至2006年冬季，每隔约5公里在海岸沿线未受干扰的区域不同地点采集了83个样本。采集工作在退潮时进行，此时可以从高潮时被海水覆盖的湿润区域采集沉积物。在每个样本地点，考虑了约1平方米的采样面积。所有样本均为泥质性质，先在露天晾干，然后在105摄氏度的烤箱中烘干2至3天以去除所有水分。胡齐斯坦海岸沿线镭 - 226（30贝克勒尔/千克）、钍 - 232（11贝克勒尔/千克）、铀 - 238（18贝克勒尔/千克）和铯 - 137（2.6贝克勒尔/千克）等放射性核素的平均活度浓度远低于通常认定的世界平均值。然而，对于天然存在的长寿命放射性核素钾 - 40，其结果（481贝克勒尔/千克）高于世界平均值，这可能是由于科威特的一次大规模石油泄漏，以及第二次波斯湾战争（1990 - 1991年）期间科威特油田燃烧产生的大量飞灰沉降和沉积所致。对于人造铯 - 137和天然存在的钍 - 232，胡齐斯坦海岸的西部和东部地区浓度高于中部地区（胡里亚或河汊）。对于长寿命天然放射性核素钾 - 40和海湾战争期间的铀 - 238（反装甲炮弹），三个区域之间没有显著差异（P < 0.05）。
