Radio-iodine in thyroid glands of swans, farm animals and humans, also in algae and river water from the Thames Valley, England

Abstract

A highly sensitive counting system has been used to measure radio-iodine in environmental samples from the Thames Valley. Iodine-125 and occasionally iodine-131 have been found in the thyroid glands of most of the swans that have died on the River Thames, the River Wey and the Grand Union Canal, and in algae and water samples from the Thames and many of its tributaries. The presence of this activity is ascribed to the waste discarded into the drainage system by hospitals and research laboratories, reaching the rivers via the effluent from sewage treatment works. The Thames is used as a source of drinking water, particularly in London and its western approaches. Weed and water samples collected from river water abstraction points, reservoirs, tap water supplies, and animal water troughs fed from this supply all contained low levels of iodine-125. The drinking water route can account for the iodine-125 found in the thyroids of farm animals from west Surrey and in a few people living in London. The amounts found constitute a trivial radiation dose to man and animals as they are far below the acceptable limit of exposure for man.