Science

Radioactive German pigs affected by unexpected source of contamination

Radioactive German pigs affected by unexpected source of contamination
The radioactive contamination of wild boars in Germany and Austria has led to an overpopulation issue in some areas, as their meat is considered unsafe for human consumption
The radioactive contamination of wild boars in Germany and Austria has led to an overpopulation issue in some areas, as their meat is considered unsafe for human consumption
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The radioactive contamination of wild boars in Germany and Austria has led to an overpopulation issue in some areas, as their meat is considered unsafe for human consumption
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The radioactive contamination of wild boars in Germany and Austria has led to an overpopulation issue in some areas, as their meat is considered unsafe for human consumption

Free-roaming boars in the woods of Austria and Germany have levels of radioactivity that makes their meat unsuitable for eating. Once thought to be the result of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, new research points to another, darker, source of contamination.

When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident occurred in 1986, it represented "the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation," according to the World Nuclear Association. Radioactive material spewed into the air for 10 days, finding its way into the ecosystem and the food chain. Two of the chief contaminants from the accident were radionuclides cesium-135 and cesium-137.

Even though wildlife in the 4,200-sq-km (1,621-sq mi) human exclusion zone eventually rebounded, ongoing radioactive contamination of animals with cesium still continues, although it has lessened in many animals.

Not so with the wild pigs in Germany and Austria. In what's become known as the "wild boar paradox," their levels of radioactivity still remain high enough to exceed regulatory limits for human consumption. To find out why this is, researchers from Leibniz University in Germany and the Vienna University of Technology worked with hunters in Southern Germany to collect wild boar meat.

Upon examining the meat with a gamma-ray detector and mass spectrometry, they were able to determine specific ratios of the two forms of cesium. These ratios revealed that, while some of the contamination did come from Chernobyl, another important source of the radioactivity was global nuclear weapons tests carried out in the 1960s. The cesium released by those tests found its way into food sources for the boar, including underground truffles, which is why their overall levels of radioactivity still have not returned to safe levels.

The study revealed that 88% of the samples they tested were still too radioactive to consume and that in some cases, the contamination from weapons testing alone was enough to make the meat unsafe. Overall, the researchers found that between 10 to 68% of the contamination came from weapons tests instead of Chernobyl. This led them to conclude that decades-old nuclear weapons testing has been an underreported source of radiocesium contamination in the pigs, and that the mix of radioactive materials from multiple sources is more persistent and dangerous than from one source alone.

"Once released, radiocesium will remain in the environment for generations and impact food safety immediately and, as shown in our study, for decades," write the researchers in a paper published in the journal, Environmental Science & Technology.

"Any additional releases will cause further accumulation and mixing with older sources, making it necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms of the biogeochemical cycling of radiocesium. For example, the impact of soil properties on mixing of different radiocesium sources has not yet been understood sufficiently. Consequently, more efforts are still needed to better understand the sources, inventories, environmental fates, and ecological risks of radiocesium," they conclude.

Source: American Chemical Society

8 comments
8 comments
Daveb
one wonders if truffles mightn't also be a tad unsafe to eat, any word?
FoFu
Wut??? When did Germany do nuclear weapons testing? And if Germany was affected by US, Russia, and others testing, what's the situation in those countries? This story makes no sense. Either they are lying or are leaving 90% of the details out.
liquor nutts
from what nuclear testing did the radiocesium come from??? the bikini atoll?? and why is this radio active material not found in squirrels, foxes, owls, rodents etc., in the same area? why only pigs.... yes i know wild boar... or for that matter domestic pigs and the local butcher shop sunday bacon??? cesium is floating indiscriminately all over the earth, not just landing in the German no-go human zone. so why only those pigs... what about the russian pigs? okay that'a a study for another day.
McDesign
Was just hiking in Austria (Tirol, around Seefeld) and learned about the radioactive pigs. The locals we talked to dismissed any purported danger and figured it was a manufactured scare to support some sort of agenda with pigs AND truffles - they were still eating both.
liquor nutts
are people suggesting this is an AI story to somehow protect the wild pig population and keep truffles from humans? interesting... let me get my mask and think about this some more
Catweazle
So the locals have been eating this "radioactive" food for decades, right?
How many of them have died of radioactive cesium in this time?
Looks like yet another case of the statistically specious Linear No Threshold model to me!
Brian M
Can understand the doubters here, but its not unreasonable to assume that truffles and other food eaten by the boar are more prone to taking up the contamination from the soil or the pigs metabolic process somehow concentrates and stores the cesium. Also just because the locals don't appear to be impacted doesn't mean there is no increased risk, the effect at lower doses is a long term statistical risk,

There is also another (very) outside probability that the Nazi during WW2 might have been doing there very own secretive atomic weapons work in the areas(?).
KaiserPingo
And a major problem being that Ruusia did absolutely not report all their nuclear tests.