Radioactive Wild Boars Still Roaming the Forests of Germany

An anonymous reader writes 28 years after the Chernobyl accident, tests have found that more than one in three Saxony boars give off such high levels of radiation that they are unfit for consumption. In 2009 almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated to be sold. "It doesn't cover the loss from game sales, but at least it covers the cost of disposal," says Steffen Richter, the head of the Saxon State Hunters Association.

Comments

Re:Interesting line from TFA:

[Ihlosi]

Chernobyl was a long time ago.

It was only about one half-life (Cs-137) ago.

Also, Cs-137 gets washed to lower soil layers very slowly (a few millimeters per year).

Re:Interesting line from TFA:

[Applehu Akbar]

Mushrooms can be used to bioconcentrate metals. Some species prefer cesium:
http://www.herbmuseum.ca/conte...

Found it

[aepervius]

1) germany apparently forbid anything above 700 bq/Kg , whereas otehr country do it at 3000 Bq/Kg.

2) Average contamination in 2009 was 7000 Bq/Kg in the highiest contaminated area.

I wish the article could have told that.

Re:Reall problem: German radiation phobia

[ShanghaiBill]

Ann Coulter. Not even up to politician level of smug idiocy, she's a Fox News talking head/moron.

Ann Coulter is a political Kim Kardashian. She thrives on drawing attention to herself by acting like an idiot. But her statement is a tiny kernel of truth wrapped up in a big ball of stupidity. Slightly higher levels of background radiation may actually be good for you. There is some evidence, in both animals and humans, that slightly higher levels of external (not ingested) radiation, over extended time, can reduced cancer rates and improve health. One hypothesis is that the radiation "exercises" the cellular repair mechanism, and keeps if functioning well.