Transfer of 137Cs from soil to chicken meat and eggs

A garden from a residential house, contaminated by the accidental opening of a 137Cs teletherapy source in Goiânia, Brazil, was used to study the distribution and biological half-lives of radiocaesium in poultry after prolonged ingestion of contaminated soil. Based on these results, concentration ratios between egg components and chicken meat of different types from soil were determined. Concentration ratios ranged from 5.5 × 10−3 to 1.06 × 10−2 for whole consumable eggs, from 2.1 × 10−2 to 5.5 × 10−2 for meat and 1.1 × 10−2 to 3.1 × 10−2 for organs.