Environmental monitoring programs often measure contaminant concentrations in animal tissues consumed by humans (e.g., muscle). By comparison, demonstration of the protection of biota from the potential effects of radionuclides involves a comparison of whole-body doses to radiological dose benchmarks. Consequently, methods for deriving whole-body concentration ratios based on tissue-specific data are required to make best use of the available information. This paper provides a series of look-up tables with whole-body:tissue-specific concentration ratios for non-human biota. Focus was placed on relatively broad animal categories (including molluscs, crustaceans, freshwater fishes, marine fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) and commonly measured tissues (specifically, bone, muscle, liver and kidney). Depending upon organism, whole-body to tissue concentration ratios were derived for between 12 and 47 elements. The whole-body to tissue concentration ratios can be used to estimate whole-body concentrations from tissue-specific measurements. However, we recommend that any given whole-body to tissue concentration ratio should not be used if the value falls between 0.75 and 1.5. Instead, a value of one should be assumed.

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The area affected by the Kyshtym accident in 1957 provided a unique opportunity for long-term studies of radiation effects in the environment. The biological effects observed in the area varied from deterministic lethal effects to an enhanced rate of mutations induced by radiation. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the long-term studies of biological effects in plants and animals inhabiting the Kyshtym affected areas over more than 50 years. Most of the observed effects were induced by the high irradiation during the ‘acute’ period after the accident. At the same time, some of the radiation effects were also because of long-term chronic exposure over many generations. Some phenomena such as (1) the increase of the mutation rate per unit dose with reduction of dose and dose rate, and (2) the radiodaptation of the affected populations to the chronic exposure were documented for the first time based on the radiobiological research performed in that area.

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