Optically stimulated luminescence investigation of chicken bones towards their use at food post-sterilization and retrospective dosimetry.

ABSTRACT

The present work explores the luminescence behavior of animal bones and more specifically, chicken bones, using OSL in order to investigate whether they can be used for the dose assessment in the case of an accident or as dosimeters at the post-sterilization dosimetry of foods. Results indicate that the OSL sensitivity is rather low and the lower detection limit is ~18 Gy eliminating the possibility of using bones as emergency dosimeter. However, the OSL dose response is linear for doses up to ~1.0 kGy, while response over the entire dose range, up to several kGy, can be fitted with an exponential saturation curve. When bones are kept in dark, half of the initial OSL signal is lost seven days after irradiation, with no further loss for longer time periods up to two months post-irradiation. Since bones are heat-sensitive and exhibit sensitization, a dose recovery test was also conducted using the SARHS protocol in order to investigate if the protocol is capable of calculating the sterilization/accidental dose of irradiated chicken/poultry. The "unknown" doses were successfully recovered even when fading was considered. Considering the fact that bones are not directly exposed to light (protected by the skin and the flesh) or to high temperatures, it seems that they could be used at retrospective dosimetry and the identification of irradiated food products containing bone (food post-sterilization dosimetry).