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Radium-226 levels and concentration ratios between water, vegetation, and tissues of ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus ) from a watershed with uranium tailings near Elliot Lake, Canada

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Environmental Pollution

Volume

77

Issue

1

First Page

39

Last Page

50

Publication Date

1992

Abstract

Radionuclide levels measured in bone, muscle, kidney and liver tissues, gut contents and diet items of 47 grouse from the Serpent River drainage basin, containing uranium (U) tailings at Elliot Lake, and from control areas in Ontario, showed variation by site and tissue.

The mean level of 226radium (Ra) in bones of grouse sampled from Elliot Lake (28·5 mBq g−1) was higher than that in bones of birds from a distant control site near Sudbury, Ontario (8·0 mBq g−1) but similar to the value in a local control population (28·1 mBq g−1). Birds from Mid- and Low-Serpent River basin populations (with 17·1 and 17·7 mBw g−1, respectively) did not differ from local or distant control populations; muscle, liver and kidney had lower 226Ra concentrations, which did not differ significantly among populations. Levels of 226Ra in the crop contents and intestine did not differ significantly by site and were similar to those of food items consumed by the birds. Stomach content values were higher in birds sampled in Elliot Lake and at the local control site than in those taken at the distant control site; birds sampled downstream from Elliot Lake did not differ from distant controls in this regard.

Levels of 232thorium (Th) and 230Th were below detection limits (0·1 μg g−1 and 5·0 mBq g−1, respectively) in bone, muscle and liver tissue in two grouse with elevated levels of 226Ra. Other radionuclides were measurable in some tissues: 238U in bone at 0·4 μg g−1, in muscle to0·2 μg g−1, in liver to 1·0 gmg g−1., 228Th was found only in muscle (8·0 mBq g−1), 210poloniuim (Po) was found in bone, muscle and liver (maxima: 24·0, 7·0, 16·0 mBq g−1) with the exception of one muscle sample; 210lead (Pb) was detected in only one liver sample (50·0 mBq g−1).

Environmental levels fell within ranges previously reported at the sites, or at similar locations elsewhere. Leaves of trembling and largetooth aspen growing in the basin had mean 226Ra levels of 14·8 and 52·7 mBq g−1 (dry weight) respectively, and fungal material carried up to 215·4 mBq g−1 (air-dried), with some variation by site. River and lake waters sampled near the U tailings had 118·1 mBq litre−1 of dissolved 226Ra; at the distant control site the value was 12·1 mBq litre−1.

The concentration ratios (CR) between bone of grouse collected at the Elliot Lake sites and trembling and largetooth aspen leaves were 1·38 and 1·09 (fresh weight basis); from other diet items and to other tissues the values were less than unity. Bone tissue: water ratios, based on dissolved 226Ra levels, ranged to 30·89.

People eating grouse from the study area are unlikely to consume radionuclides in excess of limits currently established by Canadian regulatory authorities.

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