Seafood dose parameters: Updating Po retention factors for cooking, decay loss and mariculture.

Po has been identified as one of the main contributors to ingestion doses to humans, particularly from the consumption of seafood. The amount of Po activity concentration data for various types of seafood has increased greatly in recent times. However, to provide realistic seafood dose assessments, most Po data requires correction to account for losses that can occur before the seafood is actually consumed.

The use of the IAEA MARIS database in determining the variability of sediment distribution coefficients in the marine environment and potential implications for marine dispersion modelling.

A prototype tool has been developed for deriving sediment distribution coefficients,, in the marine environment by harvesting simultaneous measurements of activity concentrations of radionuclides in seawater and sediments based on the International Atomic Energy Agency's Marine Radioactivity Information System (MARIS). As a case study, thevariability in the Baltic Sea was investigated as this region has been extensively monitored by HELCOM since 1984 resulting in a comprehensive dataset with good spatial and temporal coverage and required ancillary parameters. The prototype tool was used to derive a dataset ofapparentvalues derived from measurements of seawater and sediment in quasi-equilibrium conditions from the Baltic Sea over a period of approximately 35 years.

Assessment of residual radionuclide levels at the Bokak and Bikar Atolls in the northern Marshall Islands.

The Bikar and Bokak Atolls, located in the northern Marshall Islands, are extremely isolated and consist of pristine marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Both atolls may have experienced significant radioactive deposition following the nuclear weapon testing conducted at Bikini and Enewetak proving grounds. Here we report activity concentrations of artificial radionuclides (Pu, Pu, Pu, Am, Cs and Sr) in marine and terrestrial samples collected from Bikar and Bokak Atolls.

Clinical management practices of life-threatening asthma: an audit of practices in intensive care.

Objective: Lack of management guidelines for lifethreatening asthma (LTA) risks practice variation. This study aims to elucidate management practices of LTA in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Design: A retrospective cohort study.

Recent evolution of I levels in the Nordic Seas and the North Atlantic Ocean.

Most of the anthropogenic radionuclide I released to the marine environment from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plants (NFRP) at Sellafield (England) and La Hague (France) is transported to the Arctic Ocean via the North Atlantic Current and the Norwegian Coastal Current. I concentrations in seawater provides a powerful and well-established radiotracer technique to provide information about the mechanisms which govern water mass transport in the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean and is gaining importance when coupled with other tracers (e.g.