The Radioactivity in Food and the Environment, 1998 (RIFE-4) report was published jointly by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) on 21 September 1999. This is the 3rd such report published jointly by MAFF and SEPA. It contains the results of all of SEPA’s and MAFF’s monitoring programme data for the calendar year 1998. The report shows that UK consumers’ exposure to radiation via the foodchain remains well below national and international limits.

SEPA’s monitoring programme also sets out to determine levels of anthropogenic (man-made) radioactivity within the environment itself by using a number of environmental indicators. The foodstuffs collected as part of SEPA’s programme act both as indicators of the health of the environment and as verification that the levels of radioactivity present within foodstuffs have low radiological significance.

The data from the programme is used principally to asses effects on human health and this is given in terms of ‘dose’.

The highest doses in Scotland were attributable to liquid discharges from Sellafield. They were received by a group of high-rate fish and shellfish consumers in the Dumfries and Galloway area. Their radiological dose was 0.048 mSv, similar to the estimate for 1997 of 0.047 mSv. There was a small reduction in the contribution to this dose made by technetium-99 discharged by Sellafield but it remains one of the most significant radionuclides in the local marine environment. (The critical group doses for Sellafield were 0.20 mSv in 1998 compared with 0.10 mSv in 1997). The EU dose limit is one millisievert.

This site focused monitoring is complemented with monitoring in areas not subject to significant discharges of artificial radioactivity and these are used to determine background levels in the environment and background exposures.

The report shows that for the majority of the population natural radionuclides are by far the most important source of exposure and less than 5% of their dose is from artificial sources.

The Government policy is to reduce discharges where practicable and there is a commitment under the 1998 OSPAR Sintra agreement stating that:

"We shall ensure that discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances are reduced by the year 2020 to levels where the additional concentrations in the marine environment about historic levels, resulting from such discharges, emissions, losses, are close to zero."

In this context it is noted that liquid discharges of technetium-99 from Sellafield have declined by 75% over the last four years, although this continues to be a significant radionuclide in the environment.

Copies of the report are available free of charge from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Erskine Court, The Castle Business Park, Stirling FK9 4TR. Tel. No. +44 (0)1786 457700.

Copies can also be obtained from the Radiological Safety and Nutrition Division, JFSSG, MAFF, Room 528, Ergon House c/o Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR. Tel. No. +44(0)171 238 6476 or e-mail a.tramp@fssg.maff.gov.uk.