kitty litter

[FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV]

Meow:

My apologies for the totally irrelevant (it has nothing to do with
I-131) information about kitty litter which follows:

I once analyzed the natural radioactivity associated with my cats'
favorite brand of kitty litter which is made of clay. It contained 4
pCi/g and 3 pCi/g for each member of the uranium and thorium decay
series respectively, and 8 pCi/g of K-40. I understand that
approximately 1.9 billion pounds of litter are sold in the U.S. each
year. This means 23,000 and 57,000 pounds of uranium and thorium are
being discharged each year by grocery stores (assuming my analyzed
sample is representative) in the form of kitty litter.

If I did the calculations correctly, these concentrations would
result in an exposure rate of about 0.1 uR/hr above background
at 6 inches (gonad level) above a pan of kitty litter. Not a big
problem given the fact that cats spend significantly less time on the
potty than humans.
 
Paul Frame