HUMAN HEALTH RISK SCREENING OF RADIOACTIVE AND NONRADIOACTIVE CONTAMINANTS DUE TO URANIUM INDUSTRY OPERATION

This paper presents a human health risk screening of radioactive and n on-radioactive contaminants in the off-site surface water environment downstream of an uranium mining and milling facilities. Two hypothetic al critical groups were considered. Exposure pathways includes the use of river water for ingestion, swimming, irrigation of crops and cattl e watering. The screening analysis pointed out that the non-radioactiv e contaminants-manganese, fluoride and uranium (due to its chemical to xicity)-are of more concern than the radioactive ones. Water and veget ables ingestion were assessed as the most important exposure pathways. These results indicated that despite the fact that in these kind of f acilities most of the attention were focused on radiation risks, non r adioactive contaminants may be of greater concern. (C) 1998 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.