J. Seo et al.: Radioprotection 2025, 60( 4), 360 – 369 367
Fig. 5. Annual dose rates of 137 Cs estimated for a person in South Korea from the consumption of fishes examined in this study.
are negligible relative to those of the naturally occurring radionuclide 210 Po and the ICRP recommended annual dose. These results imply that the influence of radiocesium on marine products is much lower than that of natural radiation in seas around Korea. Nevertheless, the 137 Cs activity and CFs of fish reported in this study could represent useful background data to predict the levels of radioactive contamination in each of these fish species that inhabit the seas surrounding Korea, especially along the Far East Asian coast, where the number of NPPs is increasing annually. Therefore, long-term monitoring of specific species of marine products with various inner parts in a wider coverage area with various environmental settings( e. g., closer to the coast versus the open ocean or pelagic versus demersal) is necessary to evaluate the influence of continuous artificial radionuclide input on the marine environment.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the lab members of KIOST who helped with sampling, experiments, and analysis. We would like to extend special thanks to the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency( FIRA) officials for providing the samples.
Funding
This research was supported by Korea Institute of Marine Science & Technology Promotion( KIMST) funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries( RS-2023-00256174) and the KIOST project titled,“ Strengthen the capacity to analyze and diagnose the marine environment / ecosystem variability of the surrounding waters of the Korean Peninsula”( PEA0302).
Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no conflict of interest.
Data availability statement
All datasets used in this paper are available upon request from the corresponding author( ikim @ kiost. ac. kr).
Author contribution statement
IK contributed to the conceptualization of the study. HL and JL performed sampling, experiments, and analyses. JS, SK, and IK were involved in the data interpretation and writing of the manuscript.
Ethics approval
Ethical approval was not required.
Informed consent
This article does not contain any studies involving human subjects.
References
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