The activity of Pb in cigarette smoked in Kazakhstan.

The radon decay product Pb is a known component of tobacco. In this study, the activity concentration of Pb in the most popular cigarette brands (six samples) for Kazakhstan consumers was determined by beta spectrometry. The activity levels of Pb ranged between 2.69 ± 0.27 and 27.42 ± 2.74 mBq per cigarette. Higher activity concentrations for Pb were found in Sample No.4 and showed an excess of the world average by 1.8 times. The average activity concentrations of Pb in cigarette tobacco were 10.42 ± 1.04 mBq cig. The daily activities inhaled in the lungs of a smoker, and the resulting effective doses due to cigarette smoking were calculated. Effective doses per year due to cigarette smoking were calculated assuming that 42.13% of the Pb in tobacco were retained in the lungs of the smokers. It is concluded that for a smoker in Kazakhstan, the average effective dose ranges from 9.1 ± 0.9 μSv/year to 92.8 ± 9.3 μSv/year for a cigarette consumption of one pack of cigarettes per day. The results indicate that the annual effective doses from inhalation of Pb due to smoking one pack of cigarettes per day are from 7 to 58 times (for different types of cigarettes) greater than the annual effective doses from ingestion of radionuclides via the diet.