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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Measuring Fluxes of Mineral Nutrients and Toxicants in Plants with Radioactive Tracers
Published on: August 22, 2014
Natural specific radioactivity in different soils. Transfer in the soil plant food chain
G Spera1, F Cardone, G Cherubini
1Instituto Sperimentale per la Patologia Vegetale, Via C.G. Bertero 22, Roma, Italia.
Abstract:
In order to warrant customer's health we must pay attention to the quality of the environment and production processes; that means look all over alimentary chain. Media speak often about this topics, because of the interest of the public opinion regarding agribusiness; Nether the less much is know about soil radioactivity, but often scant attention is directed to the knowledge of the amount what remains in food and arrives to the man who is the last and main user of the product. As a consequence of that, we have done some originals studies concerning specific radioactivity in alimentary chain: soil-plant-food. These studies have been made in relation with geopedologic position of fields in volcanic, clayey, sandy soils of Latium. We have measured radioactive activity over some alimentary chains both annual (like turnip and garden cress) and pluriannual (such as vine). We made comparisons on the same soils studying the following natural markers: K40, Pb214, and Bi214; and Cs137, one of the main natural markers.
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