A historic data set containing unpublished measurements of ¹³⁷Cs (radiocesium) in 238 pooled samples of pectoral muscle from 1892 birds representing 37 species was analyzed in order to determine if (i) birds were contaminated due to global weapons fallout and/or the Chernobyl accident, (ii) to understand baseline ¹³⁷Cs levels in birds across the country by examining potential effects of trophic position and geophysical region, and (iii) to determine if the harvested birds were safe to eat. Current work is taking advantage of this data set to improve capabilities to assess the impacts of releases of radionuclides on food chains of species harvested as country food. Samples obtained from 173 locations across Canada (including locations in the Arctic), mostly during the fall hunting seasons between 1989 and 1995, were analyzed by gamma spectrometry and decay-corrected for the date of collection. Various methods of correlating measurements with environmental ¹³⁷Cs levels and species’ habits were explored in order to determine environmental radiological transfer factors. All ¹³⁷Cs measurements in the samples were much lower than the Health Canada (2018) guidance level for ¹³⁷Cs (1000 Bq kg⁻¹); therefore, there was no evidence of a human health risk with respect to radiocesium. Environmental transfer factors for six different foraging groups were determined.

分析了一个历史数据集，该数据集包含未公开的测量值，这些测量值来自代表37种物种的1892只鸟类的238份合并的238份胸肌样本中¹³⁷ Cs（放射性oc），以便确定（i）鸟类是否由于全球武器掉落和/或切尔诺贝利事故而受到污染，（ii）了解基准¹³⁷通过检查营养位置和地球物理区域的潜在影响，以及（iii）确定收获的鸟类是否可以安全食用，全国鸟类中的Cs水平。当前的工作正在利用这一数据集来提高评估放射性核素释放对作为乡村粮食收获的物种的食物链的影响的能力。从加拿大全国173个地点（包括北极地区）获得的样本（主要是在1989年至1995年的秋季狩猎季节期间）通过伽马能谱仪进行了分析，并进行了衰变校正，以确定采集日期。为了确定环境放射转移因子，探索了各种将测量值与环境¹³⁷ Cs水平和物种习性相关联的方法。全部¹³⁷样品中的Cs测量值远低于加拿大卫生部（2018）的¹³⁷ Cs（1000 Bq kg ^-1）指导水平; 因此，没有证据表明放射性铯会危害人类健康。确定了六个不同觅食组的环境转移因子。