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Even 30 years after Chernobyl Very many fungi heavily contaminated by radioactivity
Many Germans currently prefer meadows and forests to gather tasty mushrooms there. However, caution is advised here: even more than three decades after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, some types of fungi are still heavily contaminated with radioactivity.
Radioactively contaminated
Due to the weather, Germany's forests could become a paradise for mushroom pickers this year. Many Germans love to roam through meadows and forests and bring delicious mushrooms home. But caution is needed here. On the one hand there are risks of poisoning due to confusion and on the other hand many fungi are heavily polluted in some regions - including radioactivity.
At present, many Germans are gathering mushrooms. But beware: some wild mushroom species in parts of Bavaria are still heavily radioactively contaminated more than three decades after the Chernobyl accident. (Image: invizbk / fotolia.com) Wild mushrooms in Germany often heavily loaded
The Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) reported last year that many wild mushrooms in Germany are often heavily contaminated with mercury.
In addition, the BVL pointed out at the time that fungi that grow in southern Germany can "still be radioactively contaminated, depending on the region and soil type".
That is still the case, reports now also the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS).
As the Office writes in a message, test results published by the BfS show that some wild mushroom species in parts of Bavaria are heavily contaminated with radioactive cesium-137 more than three decades after the Chernobyl accident.
Report is updated every year
With the help of the annually updated report, mushroom pickers can find out about the exposure to cesium-137.
The additional radiation exposure of wild mushrooms is therefore comparatively low, provided that they are consumed in conventional amounts. For wild mushrooms, which are offered in the food trade, a limit applies.
Affected are, among others, the mushroom species Braunscheibige and Orangefalbe Schnecklinge, common Erdritterlinge, Semmelstoppelpilze, red-brown Semmelstoppelpilze, Maronenröhrlinge and brown Scheidstreiflinge, which can still have up to some 1,000 Becquerel (Bq) cesium-137 per kilogram.
The highest radio-cesium levels in wild mushrooms in Germany are to be expected in the exceptionally highly contaminated smaller areas in the Bavarian Forest, in the Donaumoos southwest of Ingolstadt and in the Mittenwald region.
In other regions, such as northern Germany, significantly less cesium-137 had been deposited in April 1986 following the Chernobyl nuclear accident. There the values are correspondingly lower.
No danger to health when consuming usual amounts
A single meal containing higher-risk wild mushrooms may contain more cesium-137 than consumers of food from agricultural production in a whole year.
If one consumes even collected mushrooms in usual quantities, one does not have to count however with negative health consequences because of the radioactivity content.
However, the German Nutrition Society also recommends restricting the consumption of wild mushrooms to 250 grams per week for other reasons, because they can accumulate toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium.
Limit value protects against health hazards
Wild mushrooms that exceed the limit for radio cesium in the amount of 600 becquerels per kilogram may not be marketed in Germany. This limit was introduced after the reactor accident at Chernobyl.
Its compliance is randomly controlled by the official food control. The BfS assumes that the burden in all edible mushroom species will slowly decline further.
However, the radiocaesium content of a fungus species varies greatly from location to location: even within small forest areas, the differences are generally much larger than the average decline from year to year. (Ad)