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The main purpose of this study was to measure the natural radioactivity in some foodstuffs and agricultural soils from the Abyan Delta in Yemen and study the interaction between soil and foodstuffs by calculating the transfer factor (TF).The annual effective doses to individuals were also calculated and compared with the reference levels. The investigation yielded outcomes that can be considered as the initial phase in the computation of levels of radioactivity for a staple foodstuff in Yemen. The activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K were determined by using the high purity germanium (HPGe) gamma ray spectrometer. In agricultural soils, the mean activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K were 33.15 Bq kg −1 , 77.25 Bq kg −1 , and 1220.59 Bq kg −1 , respectively, while the maximum values in foodstuffs were 4.88 ± 0.30, 2.50 ± 0.14 and 351.30 ± 11.25 (Bq Kg −1 ), respectively. The average TF of 232 Th and 40 K were lower than the default values of 0.05 and 1.00 respectively, but the average TF value of 226 Ra was slightly higher than the reference value of 0.04. The average effective dose to individuals from the intake of the food types was 8.448 µSv y −1 , which is much lower than the worldwide average annual effective dose.

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This paper presents the concentrations of naturally occurring radionuclides 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K measured in Groundwater collected from Abyan delta on Gulf of Aden in Yemen. Concentrations of radionuclides in samples were determined by gamma-ray spectrometer using HPGe detector with specially designed shield. The average activity concentrations were (1.71 ± 0.09 Bq l -1 ), (1.43 ± 0.05 Bq l -1 ) and (14.16 ± 0.45 Bq l -1 ) for 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K, respectively. The annual effective doses mSv y -1 due to ingestion of 226 Ra and 232 Th for different age groups were also calculated. The results compared with the recommended value reported by World Health Organization.