Effective Doses of Ionizing Radiation during Therapeutic Peat Mud Treatment from a Deposit in the Knyszyn Forest (Northeastern Poland)

Jacek Kapala, Maria Karpinska and Stanislaw Mnich
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Jacek Kapala: Department of Biophysics, Medical University of Bialystok, Mickiewicza 2A, 15-222 Bialystok, Poland
Maria Karpinska: Department of Biophysics, Medical University of Bialystok, Mickiewicza 2A, 15-222 Bialystok, Poland
Stanislaw Mnich: Department of Biophysics, Medical University of Bialystok, Mickiewicza 2A, 15-222 Bialystok, Poland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-9

Abstract: Radioactivity measurements of 61 therapeutic peat mud samples from the Podsokoldy deposits, near Suprasl, were performed using gamma spectrometry. The authors identified the presence of 13 isotopes with the arithmetic mean of activity (in Bq kg −1 ): 137 Cs-7, 40 K-24, 208 Tl-1, 212 Bi-3, 212 Pb-2, 228 Ac-2, 210 Pb-33, 214 Bi-11, 214 Pb-11, 226 Ra-53, 234 Th–47. The effective dose obtained during treatment with 15 peat mud baths (lasting 30 min) was 0.078 μSv. Use of peat mud compresses in the same number and period of exposure to the entire body surface caused absorption of a dose of 0.153 μSv. The authors discuss the probability of tissue radiation from isotopes present in the peat mud. In light of radiobiological knowledge, the therapeutic effect of ionizing radiation during peat mud therapy appears to be very unlikely.

Keywords: natural radioactivity; effective radiation dose; peat mud (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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