Calculating the dose rate of natural radioactivity in vegetables from an agricultural area. El Jadida, Morocco

The present work aims at measuring the natural radioactivity and annual effective dose in vegetables collected from an agricultural area in El-Jadida located on the North-western side of Morocco. The activity concentrations of ²¹⁰Pb, ²²⁶Ra, and ⁴⁰K were determined using a high-resolution gamma spectrometry technique. The results show that the specific activities in vegetable samples of ²¹⁰Pb ²²⁶Ra and ⁴⁰K vary between 3.44 ± 0.55 Bq.Kg^-1 and 12.80 ± 0.57 Bq.Kg^-1; 2.25 ± 0.6 Bq.Kg ^-1 and 5.15 ± 0.60 Bq.Kg^-1 and between 507.5 ± 27.76 and 1808.6 ± 93.19 Bq.Kg ⁻¹ respectively. The total average annual effective dose calculated for investigated vegetable samples varied from 0.07 to 1.03 mSv/y with an average of 0.71 mSv/y. The total average annual effective dose found in all samples is lower than the worldwide median values for all groups. Accordingly, the obtained values of natural radioactivity and annual effective dose in the vegetable of the El Jadida region are safe and do not exceed the International limit values. However, further analysis of other types of vegetables needs to be investigated all around different periods of the year.