Salzgitter, Berlin (epd). Edible mushrooms growing wild in southern Germany can still be contaminated with radioactive cesium 37 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) announced on Thursday that the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) responded to an epd request. These regions of Germany were particularly affected by the radioactive fallout from the reactor accident in 1986. A small proportion of the radiation comes from the above-ground nuclear weapons tests of the 1950s and 1960s.
Values of more than 1,000 becquerels per kilogram have been found in stubble mushrooms, various types of snails, yellow-stemmed trumpet chanterelles, common red-footed boletus, chestnut boletus or goat’s lips, said BfS spokeswoman Anja Lutz. According to their statements, only very slightly contaminated were, among other things, bleeding wood mushroom, blood-red felt boletus, brown giant vaginal stripe, brown-red leather russula, brown-scaled giant mushroom, wrinkled inkling, hare boletus and honey-yellow honey fungus.
The unit becquerel indicates the number of radioactive decays in one second. There is a limit of 600 becquerels for wild mushrooms in the trade.
“If wild-growing edible mushrooms are consumed in normal quantities, the additional radiation exposure is comparatively low,” said Lutz. If you want to reduce your personal exposure, however, you should refrain from excessive consumption of mushrooms you have collected yourself in the more heavily contaminated areas of Germany.
The consumption of 200 grams of mushrooms with 2,000 becquerels of cesium-137 per kilogram results in an exposure of 0.005 millisievert, explained the BfS spokeswoman: “This is significantly less than the radiation exposure on a flight from Frankfurt to Gran Canaria.” However, adults who eat such a mushroom meal every week would have an additional radiation dose, as with around twenty flights from Frankfurt to Gran Canaria.