DIN EN ISO 23548:2025-12

Everyone is exposed to natural radiation. Natural sources of radiation include cosmic rays and naturally occurring radioactive materials found in the Earth's crust, in flora and fauna, and in the human body. Human activities that involve the use of radiation and radioactive materials represent additional sources of radiation exposure. This document describes a generic test method for measuring alpha-emitting radionuclides by means of alpha spectrometry for all types of samples (soil, sediments, building materials, food, water, air, environmental bioindicators, human biological samples such as urine, feces, etcetera). The method can be used for measurements of very low activity levels that are one or two orders of magnitude lower than customary natural levels of alpha-emitting radionuclides. If necessary, appropriate pretreatment of the sample followed by specific chemical separation of the test material in order to obtain a thin measurement source that is suitable for alpha spectrometry shall be required. These procedures are also described in the standard.