Also, activities such as burning coal that contains small amounts of thorium, mining or milling thorium, or making products that contain thorium also release thorium into the environment. Thorium is used to make ceramics, lantern mantles, and metals used in the aerospace industry and in nuclear reactions. Thorium can also be used as a fuel for generating nuclear energy. More than 30 years ago thorium oxides were used in hospitals to make certain kinds of diagnostic X-ray photographs. Since thorium is found almost everywhere, you will be exposed to small amounts of it in the air you breathe and in the food and water you eat and drink.
Scientists know, roughly, the average amounts of thorium in food and drinking water.
Most people in the United States eat some thorium with their food every day. Normally, very little of the thorium in lakes, rivers, and oceans gets into the fish or seafood we eat. The amounts in the air are usually so small that they can be ignored. There may be more thorium than normal near an uncontrolled hazardous waste site in which thorium has not been disposed of properly. Consequently, you may be exposed to slightly more thorium if you live near one of these sites because you could breathe windblown dust containing thorium or eat food grown in soil contaminated with thorium.