Abstract
Tobacco contains minute quantities of radioactive isotopes of uranium series and thorium series ((210)Pb, (210)Po and (226)Ra), which are radioactive carcinogenic. Smoking of tobacco and its products increases the internal intake and radiation dose due to natural radionuclides. In a number of studies, inhalation of some naturally occurring radionuclides via smoking has been considered to be one of the most significant causes of lung cancer. In this work, Moasel tobacco samples were collected from the Saudi and Egypt markets. Natural radionuclides ((234)Th, (226)Ra, (210)Pb, (214)Bi, (228)Ac, (40)K and (210)Po) in tobacco were measured using gamma-ray spectrometer and alpha spectrometer. The measured data were presented and discussed. (c) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.