Artificial radionuclides in edible wild mushrooms and berries of the Murmansk region

Abstract

The omnipresent dispersion of technogenic iso� topes has significantly increased the risk of the popu� lation of the Russian Federation and several countries of Western Europe receiving additional doses of inter� nal irradiation from the consumption of food products of forest origin. This fact is confirmed by investigations in regions polluted with anthropogenic radionuclides that demonstrate that some species of edible toadstool mushrooms and wild berries significantly exceed other components of forest biocenoses in their capability to accumulate artificial radionuclides; the transition coefficients for forest production are one order of magnitude greater than those of agricultural products. Although mushrooms and berries are not essential food products, they are actively consumed. As a result, people get not only the nutrients and vitamins but also additional amounts of technogenic isotopes and irra� diation doses. Atmospheric nuclear tests and the incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in 1986 influenced strongly the distribution of artificial radionuclides in the Arctic ecosystems [1]. The surface activity of radi� onuclides that precipitated over the Murmansk region, the northern territories of Norway (the Troms and Finnmark counties), and Finland (the Lapland region) as reported in 1985 varied in the range: 1.2– 4.2 Bq/m