You are here: Home > Radiation Monitoring > Radiation in the environment > Finnish construction timber
Finnish construction timberActivity concentration of 137Cs in Finnish debarked timber is roughly a few tens of becquerels per kg stock weight (80% dry matter), when the timber is harvested from mature Scots pine forests in the main fallout area contaminated by the Chernobyl accident in 1986. A considerable part of Finnish timber is produced in less contaminated areas where activity concentrations are very low. Only exceptionally the 137Cs concentration in stemwood used for construction of log houses or timber framed detached houses exceeds 100 Bq/kg stock weight.
People living all year round in log houses with wooden ceiling and floor receive a radiation dose due to gamma radiation from the decay of 137Cs. The dose is generally not higher than a few percents of the action level, 1 mSv/year, set for exposure to gamma radiation from natural radioactive substances in building materials originating from rock and soil (ST Guide 12.2 / 17 December 2010, STUK, pdf). Radiation exposure from 137Cs in furniture made of Finnish timber is in practice negligible because of shorter exposure times and smaller size of the sources compared to houses. Page updated 22/11/2011
|
|