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:Reall problem: German radiation phobia

[I'm New Around Here]

Wouldn't the trichinosis already be irradiated anyway? Just think of the radiation as a 'very-slow-roasting' system. The meat is practically falling off the bone before the animal is even dead.

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For the humor-impaired, this is a joke.

Silver lining

[Nidi62]

Since a lot of hog hunts are done at night, the slight glow should make the boars a lot easier to see

Re:Reall problem: German radiation phobia

[Charliemopps]

hmm...

Assuming all of the radioactivity is due to Cs-137, that 600 Bq/kg limit translates to 0.0000003 micrograms of Cs-137 in any given kg of wild pork.

Okay, I can buy the argument that that "safe" limit errs on the side of caution a bit much....

The real problem from a meltdown isn't really the radiation. While that's scary and all... the real problem is what else is released and what the shorter half life elements decay into. Most of what the control rods are made out of are horrific heavy metals, and during the Chernobyl incident the Russians panicked and dumped large amounts of liquid lead and cement laced with lead into the basement of the reactor. The lead boiled off and then rained back down all over the region. If I lived in the area, I'd be more concerned about that lead than I would be about the radiation.

Re:Interesting line from TFA:

[Applehu Akbar]

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

Re:Interesting line from TFA:

[Waffle Iron]

It seems odd that the pigs are too irradiated to eat but seem to thrive and breed just fine.

Most people these days prefer to live a good deal longer than their earliest possible breeding time.

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:Interesting line from TFA:

[the_other_chewey]

North Italy, Austria and then south Germany where the first regions hit by the Chernobyl explosion.

Don't quote me on that, but I'm decently sure that Chernobyl (and Pripyat) were the first regions hit by the Chernobyl explosion...