Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 135 (2014) 108e112

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Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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210 210
Polonium and lead content of marine birds from Southeastern
Brazil
José Marcus Godoy a, b, *, Salvatore Siciliano c, Zenildo Lara de Carvalho b, Davi C. Tavares d,
Jaílson Fulgencio de Moura c, Maria Luiza D.P. Godoy b
a
Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria (IRD), Caixa Postal 37750, Barra da Tijuca, 22642-970 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
b
Departamento de Química, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rua Marquês de São Vicente 225, 22453-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
c
Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, FIOCRUZ, Dept
de Endemias, Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Marinhos da Região dos Lagos (GEMM-Lagos), Rua
Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480e6
andar, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21410-210, Brazil
d
Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense-UENF, CBB, Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ 28013-602, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, we report the 210Po and 210Pb concentrations of bone, muscle and liver samples that were
Received 2 January 2014 obtained from twelve different marine bird species stranded on beaches in the centralenorth region of
Received in revised form Rio de Janeiro State. Both radionuclides were highly concentrated in the liver samples; however, the
11 April 2014
lowest mean 210Po/210Pb activity ratio (1.3) was observed in bones compared with liver and muscle (16.8
Accepted 14 April 2014
and 13.8, respectively). Among the species that were studied, Fregata magnificens, with a diet based
Available online
exclusively on fish, had the lowest 210Pb and 210Po concentrations and the lowest 210Po/210Pb activity
ratio. The 210Po concentrations in Puffinus spp. liver samples followed a log-normal distribution, with a
Keywords:
Po-210
geometric mean of 300 Bq kg-1wet weight. Only two references pertaining to 210Po in marine birds were
Pb-210 found in a Web of Science search of the literature, and each study reported a different concentration
Marine birds value. The values determined in this experiment are consistent with those in one of the previous studies,
Brazil which also included one of the species studied in this work. No values for 210Pb in marine birds have been
published previously.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The ‘Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Marinhos da Região dos
Lagos’ (GEMM-Lagos; the ‘Lagos Region Study Group on Marine
Mammals’) regularly patrols approximately 250 km of the central-
northern region of the Rio de Janeiro State coast (between 21
180 S
and 23
S) in search of strandings. Since March 1999, the GEMM-
Lagos has maintained a regional reporting network and database
of marine animal strandings, which includes information on dead
beach-cast marine birds. In response to the strandings, post-
mortem examinations and scientific sampling are performed on a
regular basis. The stranding date, location, gender, total body length
and possible cause of death are recorded (Siciliano et al., 2011).
Basic information about the species studied during this work is
presented in Table 1 (Carboneras, 1992; Onley and Scofield, 2007;
Sick, 1997; Shirihai, 2008). The set of analyzed samples includes
information about small birds, such as Pterodroma mollis mollis, and
* Corresponding author. Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria (IRD), Caixa
Postal 37750, Barra da Tijuca, 22642-970 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
E-mail address: jmgodoy@puc-rio.br (J.M. Godoy).
larger birds, such as Fregata magnificens; birds living in the coastal
zone and in the pelagic region; and both migratory and non-
migratory species.
Although marine birds are considered top predators, data on the
210
Po concentrations in marine birds are very scarce. In fact, only
two references were found in a search of the Web of Science
database (Noshkin et al., 1994; Skwarzec and Fabisiak, 2007).
Additional data on 210Po in seabirds were obtained from Gwynn
et al. (2010), published in a Nordic Nuclear Safety Research report.
Skwarzec and Fabisiak (2007) reported that 210Po was found
primarily in skeleton, feathers and liver. As observed for other
heavy metals (Scheuhammer, 1987), 210Po in feathers is predomi-
nantly found to be adsorbed rather than having been built into the
feather structure. Similar difficulties in describing 210Po in feathers
were reported by Gwynn et al. (2010), who observed no clear
relationship between 210Po concentrations in muscle and feathers.
Additionally, 40e60% of the polonium content was removed after
treatment with acetone, leading to the conclusion that a potential
association exists between this radionuclide and preen oil. Ac-
cording to Skwarzec and Fabisiak (2007), a detailed study of the
measurements of 210Po in feathers of two species of seabirds

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.04.008
0265-931X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 J.M. Godoy et al. / Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 135 (2014) 108e112 109

Table 1
General information about the studied species.

Taxon Common name Total length (cm) Food habits Migratory status Habitat

Sphenisciformes Sharpe, 1891

Spheniscidae Bonaparte, 1831
Spheniscus magellanicus
Procellariiformes Fürbringer, 1888
Diomedeidae Gray, 1840
Thalassarche melanophris
Procellariidae Leach, 1820
Pterodroma mollis mollis
Procellaria aequinoctialis
Calonectris borealis
Puffinus gravis
Puffinus griseus
Puffinus puffinus
Suliformes Sharpe, 1891
Fregatidae Degland & Gerbe,
Fregata magnificens
Sulidae Reichenbach, 1849
Sula leucogaster
Charadriiformes
Laridae Rafinesque, 1815
Larus dominicanus
Sternidae Vigors, 1825
Sterna hirundo
Magellanic Penguin 66e73 Fish (anchovy; sardine) and cephalopods South Hemisphere Coastal
Black-browed Albatross 80e96 Fish and krill. Eventually also eats South Hemisphere Pelagic
cephalopods and jellyfish
Soft-plumaged Petrel 32e37 Cephalopods, crustaceans and South Hemisphere Pelagic
fish caught at the sea surface
White-chinned Petrel 51e58 Cephalopods, crustaceans and South Hemisphere Pelagic
fish caught below 13 m
Cory’s Shearwater 44e46 North Hemisphere Coastal/Pelagic
Greater Shearwater 46e51 Cephalopods, crustaceans and South Hemisphere Pelagic
fishes caught at the sea surface
Sooty Shearwater 41e46 Cephalopods, crustaceans and small fishes North Hemisphere Pelagic
Manx Shearwater 30e35 Cephalopods, crustaceans and fish North Hemisphere Pelagic
1867
Magnificent Frigatebird 92e96 Fish caught at the sea surface Resident Coastal
Brown Booby 69e83 Fish and cephalopods Resident Coastal
Kelp Gull 56e59 Onivorous (mainly fishes) Resident Coastal
Common Tern 28e34 Fish (also catches food in rivers and lagoons). North Hemisphere Coastal

showed that over 63% of polonium is connected with adsorbed
forms of the element. They supposed that this part of polonium
comes from the air. Only approximately 37% of polonium in feathers
was built into their structure. These results lead to the conclusion
that marine birds are an important link for polonium circulation in
the environment. However, for use in pollution studies, feathers
must be collected from the breasts of nesting birds (Burger, 2013);
because fledglings are not able to fly very far (e.g., only within
nearby vegetation), they exhibit contaminants that are acquired
locally from food gathered by their parents (Burger, 1993).
The polonium content in muscle in seabirds depends on the
birds’ food habits; those eating fishes have lower 210Po concen-
tration in muscle than do those with a diet that includes items such
as mollusks and crustaceans. According to Carvalho (2011), if fewer
trophic links exist in the food chain, the 210Po concentration will be
higher in the top predator tissues.
Therefore, because the present study involved only adult birds,
feathers were not included; only bone, liver and muscle samples
were analyzed. In addition to 210Po, 210Pb was determined to
calculate the decay corrected 210Po concentration at the sampling
collection time and the 210Po/210Pb ratio. These values were, in turn,
used to determine the fraction of 210Po directly incorporated by the
animals and the fraction generated by the 210Pb decay.
2. Materials and methods
Tissue samples from twelve different marine birds species
were analyzed (Table 1). Fig. 1 shows the sampling collection
region along the Rio de Janeiro coastal area. Based on the samples
available, the present work was limited to muscle, liver and bone
samples. The stage of decomposition was determined based on
the Geraci and Lounsbury (2005) scale, where stage 1 represents
a fresh sample and stage 5 indicates advanced decomposition. It
is also possible to estimate a time of death based on the Geraci
and Lounsbury (2005) scale: stage 1 < 0.5 day, stage 2 z 1.5
day, stage 3 z 5 days and stage 4 z 7 days. This application
represents an adaptation of the Geraci and Lounsbury (2005)
scale, which was originally developed for stranded marine
mammals.
To correct for the chemical yield and enable an accurate 210Po
determination, approximately 74 mBq/sample 208Po spike was
added to 1 g of liver and 5 g of muscle tissue or bone, and the
sample was dissolved in aqua regia (3 HCl:1 HNO3). The 208Po
spikes used are traceable to BIPM and were diluted according to the
Radionuclides Metrology Section of the Institute for Radioprotec-
tion and Dosimetry (SEMRA/IRD). The resulting solution was slowly
evaporated to dryness, and the residue was dissolved in 0.5 mol L1
HCl. Polonium was spontaneously deposited onto silver discs in the
presence of 0.50 g of hydroxylamine hydrochloride. The 210Po and
208
Po alpha emissions were measured using a 450-mm2 Ortec
alpha spectrometer with a counting time of 1000 min. The accuracy
and precision of the radiochemical method were evaluated using
IAEA reference materials (IAEA-437, Mussel from Mediterranean
Sea, and IAEA-384, Fangataufa Sediment) and estimated to be
within 10%. The polonium yield in the analyzed samples of seabirds
ranged from 53 to 94%, with a typical yield of 70e80%. The 210Po
concentration values are given with one standard deviation (SD).
The detailed method and its validation were described by Godoy
(1980).
The 210Po values were decay-corrected to the sample collection
day, which was well defined, and the correction for the assumed
time of death amounted to only 2.5% for stage 3 samples and 3.4%
for stage 4 samples. The 210Po concentration on the sampling day
was calculated using Equations (1) and (2) and represents the
excess of 210Po relative to 210Pb. Based on this equation, when
210
Po(t ¼ 0) is zero, 210Po and 210Pb are in secular equilibrium:
Ið210 PoÞ 208
210
Po ¼ $Að PoÞ$e0:000655$t1 $e0:0050$t2 (1)
Ið208 PoÞ
  
210
Poðt ¼ 0Þ ¼ 210
Po  210 Pb* 1  e0:0050$t3 *e0:0050$t3 (2)
110 J.M. Godoy et al. / Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 135 (2014) 108e112
Fig. 1. Sample collection areas along the Rio de Janeiro State coastal region.
where
210
Po ¼ Po-210 concentration decay, corrected to the deposition
day (Bq kg1)
I(210Po) ¼ Po-210 peak area.
I(208Po) ¼ Po-208 peak area.
A(208Po) ¼ Po-208 added activity (Bq)
t1 ¼ time interval between 208Po calibration and the sample
measurement (days)
t2 ¼ time interval between 210Po platting and the sample mea-
surement (days)
210
Pb ¼ Pb-210 concentration (Bq kg1)
t3 ¼ time interval between 210Po deposition and sampling (days)
After the polonium deposition, 20 mg of lead and 47% of HBr
were added (5.8 mL HBr/100 mL solution) to the solution. Lead
was purified by applying an ion-exchange separation, as
described by Godoy et al. (1998), and measured through the beta
counting of its daughter product, 210Bi (t1/2 ¼ 5.0 days), on a 10-
channel low background EG&G Ortec Prof. Berthold LB-750 gas-
flow proportional counter. This detector allows a background of
0.2 cpm on the beta plateau and a 210Bi counting efficiency of
30%. Based on a counting time of 1000 min, the achieved
detection limit was 4 mBq/sample. On a bi-annual basis, the
laboratory participates in the National Intercomparation Pro-
gram, whose objective is to evaluate the performance of Brazilian
analytical laboratories in the determination of low-level radio-
nuclides in environmental samples (Tauhata et al., 2006a;
2006b).
3. Results and discussion
The results obtained in this study are shown in Table 2. The
reported value represents the excess 210Po relative to 210Pb at the
sampling time. The results related to F. magnificens represent the
lowest values observed. Additionally, these samples had 210Po/210Pb
activity ratios of 0.7 and 1.0, indicating that the existing 210Po
originated from the 210Pb decay, which may in turn be a conse-
quence of the species’ food habits because F. magnificens is the
largest analyzed species and the only one that has a diet consisting
exclusively of fish.
Additional Puffinus liver samples were obtained, yielding a total
of 22 liver samples. It was verified that, at least in the liver, the 210Po
concentration follows a log-normal distribution (SmirnoveKol-
mogorov, 95%), with a geometric mean of 300 Bq kg1 wet weight . This
value is similar to that previously reported for dolphin in the same
region (Godoy et al., 2012). The geometric mean of the 210Po con-
tent in Puffinus muscle samples, 64 Bq kg1 wet weight , fits with that
observed in “Franciscana” dolphin from the same region, which
feed is based on small fishes, and is higher than the observed on
“Guiana” dolphin samples which food habit includes larger fishes
(Godoy et al., 2012).
As verified for other marine species (Carvalho, 2011), 210Po is
more highly concentrated in liver than it is in muscle or bone
(liver > muscle > bone). For 210Pb, the highest concentrations were
observed in the liver samples, but, in contrast to the pattern
observed for 210Po, the concentration in muscle was lower than that
in bone, reflecting the fact that lead is a bone-seeking element. The
geometric mean of the 210Po/210Pb activity ratios were 1.3, 16.8 and
13.8 for bone, liver and muscle, respectively, thus showing a dif-
ference in the behaviors of lead and polonium in these three types
of tissues, and in particular, in bone, where 210Po seems to have
originated from the 210Pb decay. The mean liver/muscle activity
ratios were 10 (36e1.4) for 210Po and 6.2 (31e0.7) for 210Pb,
whereas the bone/muscle activity ratios were more constant, with
a mean value of 0.5 (1.2e0.06) for 210Po and 2.4 (5.4e0.88) for 210Pb.
As reported for “Franciscana” and “Guiana” dolphins (Godoy
et al., 2012), there was no clear relationship between the 210Po
concentration in muscle samples and the stage of decomposition.
Based on migratory status and habits, three main groups of
samples were identified: resident/coastal, South Hemisphere/
pelagic and North Hemisphere/pelagic. Assuming a log-normal
distribution, the geometric mean for muscle, liver and bone were
calculated (Table 3). Independent of the origin, North or South
Hemisphere, migratory species presented higher 210Po concentra-
tions than did resident species, which could be related to the need
 J.M. Godoy et al. / Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 135 (2014) 108e112 111

Table 2
Polonium-210 and Lead-210 concentrations in the analyzed samples (values in Bq kg-1wet weight).

210 210 210

Sampling time Specie Tissue Decomposition stage Pb Po Po/210Pb

5/18/2011 Calonectris borealis Muscle 4 4.9  1.3 33.0  6.8 6.7

3/17/2011 Fregata magnificens Muscle 3 4.5  0.9 EQ 1.0
12/29/2011 Fregata magnificens Bone 3 5.1  0.9 1.7  1.3 0.3
12/29/2011 Fregata magnificens Muscle 3 3.5  0.7 2.4  1.0 0.7
8/13/2011 Larus dominicanus Liver 2 ND 142.7  8.4
8/13/2011 Larus dominicanus Muscle 2 ND 41.5  2.5
9/13/2011 Procellaria aequinoctialis Liver 2 23.6  3.6 519  31 22.0
9/13/2011 Procellaria aequinoctialis Muscle 2 3.1  0.8 23.3  2.6 7.5
9/20/2011 Procellaria aequinoctialis Muscle 3 ND 38.9  2.5
9/27/2011 Pterodroma mollis Muscle 2 3.6  1.6 92.8  7.2 25.8
5/8/2011 Puffinus gravis Bone 4 ND 16.4  5.4
5/8/2011 Puffinus gravis Liver 2 49.2  9.6 877  68 17.8
5/8/2011 Puffinus gravis Muscle 4 1.6  0.6 100.3  6.1 62.7
7/2/2011 Puffinus gravis Liver 2 4.2  1.7 183  12 43.6
7/2/2011 Puffinus gravis Muscle 2 2.0  0.6 67.5  4.4 33.8
5/4/2011 Puffinus griseus Liver 2 ND 140.6  9.8
5/4/2011 Puffinus griseus Muscle 2 ND 13.8  1.1
2/7/2012 Puffinus griseus Muscle 3 7.8  2.4 35.0  3.8 4.5
7/7/2011 Puffinus puffinus Bone 3 6.0  1.0 21.9  4.2 3.6
7/7/2011 Puffinus puffinus Liver 2 49.8  5.8 526  41 10.6
7/7/2011 Puffinus puffinus Muscle 3 2.2  0.7 242  15 110.0
9/20/2011 Puffinus puffinus Bone 4 5.5  1.1 57.9  5.0 10.5
9/20/2011 Puffinus puffinus Liver 2 11.2  3.4 415  23 37.1
9/20/2011 Puffinus puffinus Muscle 4 2.8  0.8 167.2  8.2 59.7
10/23/2011 Puffinus puffinus Bone 2 10.7  1.2 13.3  2.3 1.2
10/23/2011 Puffinus puffinus Liver 2 13.7  4.4 285  17 20.8
10/23/2011 Puffinus puffinus Muscle 2 2.0  0.8 33.6  2.7 16.8
8/11/2011 Spheniscus magellanicus Liver 2 19.9  3.6 359  22 18.1
7/10/2011 Spheniscus magellaanicus Liver 2 11.1  3.3 187  17 16.9
7/10/2011 Spheniscus magellaanicus Muscle 2 1.4  0.7 126.3  7.5 90.2
8/11/2011 Spheniscus magellanicus Muscle 2 3.0  0.8 9.9  2.5 3.3
11/26/2011 Sterna hirundo Liver 2 39.2  5.7 264  18 6.7
11/26/2011 Sterna hirundo Muscle 2 <2 64.9  3.3 32.5
5/4/2011 Sula leocogaster Liver 2 30.7  5.5 EQ 1.0
9/12/2011 Sula leocogaster Liver 3 2.6  0.8 457  24 175.9
9/12/2011 Sula leocogaster Muscle 3 1.9  0.8 30.2  2.9 15.9
1/19/2011 Sula leucogaster Bone 3 8.0  1.1 EQ 1.0
1/19/2011 Sula leucogaster Muscle 2 3.8  0.8 298  18 78.4
5/4/2011 Sula leucogaster Muscle 2 3.3  0.9 32.1  5.2 9.7
7/1/2011 Sula leucogaster Bone 3 5.2  0.8 7.2  3.5 1.4
7/1/2011 Sula leucogaster Muscle 3 2.7  0.7 31.7  3.9 11.7
1/6/2012 Sula leucogaster Bone 3 5.6  1.0 12.6  1.8 2.2
1/6/2012 Sula leucogaster Muscle 3 1.7  0.6 10.3  1.2 6.1
1/9/2012 Sula leucogaster Bone 2 4.2  1.0 2.2  1.5 0.5
1/9/2012 Sula leucogaster Liver 2 10.8  3.6 173  10 16.0
1/9/2012 Sula leucogaster Muscle 2 4.8  0.8 33.8  2.3 7.1
7/17/2011 Thalassarche melanophris Liver 2 12.0  2.8 66  11 5.5
9/13/2011 Thalassarche melanophris Liver 2 <3 88.5  5.6 29.5
9/13/2011 Thalassarche melanophris Muscle 3 4.1  0.8 62.6  4.0 15.3

ND ¼ Not Determined, EQ ¼ Radioactive Secular Equilibrium.

for the higher food consumption that is necessary to overcome did F. magnificens. No 210Pb values for marine birds were found in
large distances. the literature, which makes these results the first to be published.
The present values are approximately one to two orders of The organ weight distribution of marine birds was calculated
magnitude higher than those published by Skwarzec and Fabisiak based on the work of Skwarzec and Fabisiak (2007), and it was
(2007) for 210Po in marine birds. In fact, only the values observed assumed that the 210Po in feathers does not contribute to the in-
for F. magnificens are similar to those found in this reference. ternal absorbed radiation dose. The internal absorbed radiation
Noshkin et al. (1994) investigated only three muscle samples from dose rate due to 210Po was calculated according to ICRP publication
Sula leucogaster, but the reported values of 27.3e56 for 210Po are 108 (ICRP, 2008), and a radiation weighting factor of 10 was
generally consistent with the range found in this work (10e
34 Bq kg1wet weight , n ¼ 5), with the exception of one value of
298 Bq kg1wet weight . Gwynn et al. (2010) analyzed three different
Table 3
Polonium-210 concentration geometric mean in muscle, liver and bone samples
seabird species; those with food habits that included mollusks
classified according to their migratory status and habitats, values in Bq kg1
wet .
presented 210Po concentrations that were one order of magnitude
higher than those of the species with food habits based only on fish. Tissue Resident/coastal North hemisphere/ South hemisphere/
Pelagic Pelagic
In the present work, only F. magnificens has a food habit based
specifically on fishes, while the other remaining species that were Muscle 22.4 (N ¼ 9) 58.0 (N ¼ 5) 57.4 (N ¼ 6)
analyzed have a more diverse diet that includes crustaceans and Liver 136 (N ¼ 4) 306 (N ¼ 4) 217 (N ¼ 5)
Bone 4.9 (N ¼ 5) 26 (N ¼ 3) 16.4 (N ¼ 1)
cephalopods; they thus presented higher 210Po concentrations than
112 J.M. Godoy et al. / Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 135 (2014) 108e112
employed (Vives i Battle et al., 2004). A maximum value of
10 mGy h1 was obtained for the Puffinus gravis sampled on 05/08/
2011; this value is lower than the threshold for statistically signif-
icant effects (400 mGy h1, UNSCEAR, 2008).
4. Conclusions
The 210Po and 210Pb concentrations of twelve different marine
bird species were determined in the present study. In the literature,
similar data are very scarce for 210Po and nearly nonexistent for
210
Pb. The species with a more diverse diet, including the con-
sumption of crustaceans and cephalopods, presented higher 210Po
concentration than did F. magnificens, whose food habit is based only
on fishes. The 210Po/210Pb activity ratio varies among tissues; mean
values of 1.3, 16.8 and 13.8 were measured for bone, liver and
muscle, respectively. No clear relationship was observed between
the 210Po concentration in muscle samples and the decomposition
stage. The 210Po concentration in liver samples followed a log-
normal distribution, with a geometric mean of 300 Bq kg1 wet weight ,
similar to the value reported previously for dolphin in the same
region. The maximum calculated internal absorbed radiation dose
rate was 10 mGy h1, which is lower than the proposed threshold for
statistically significant effects (400 mGy h1).
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