New Study Reveals Surprising Contributor To High Levels Of Radiation In German Wild Boars
Human activities involving nuclear technology, from weapons testing to mishaps at energy facilities, have left a radioactive footprint on our planet.
These volatile elements can travel great distances and stick around in the ecosystem for centuries, building up in vegetation and animals.
Take Germany as a case in point: Researchers have long been aware that the country’s southern forests are home to wild boars with elevated levels of radioactive cesium.
In fact, if you’re hunting boars in specific regions, you’re obligated to check them for radiation levels. Some have even been judged unfit for consumption.
In the past, experts primarily attributed the elevated radiation levels in these boars to fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion.
This catastrophe in Ukraine dispersed radioactive substances over nearly half of Europe and extended to parts of Asia, Africa, and North America.
However, a recent study that came out last month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests a plot twist.
According to the research, radioactive material from weapons tests conducted years before the Chernobyl incident also plays a substantial role in the current cesium radiation levels found in these wild boars.
“My mind was blown when I realized how relevant this source of radioactive contamination in general still is,” recalled Georg Steinhauser, the study’s co-author and a radiochemist from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria.
vaclavkrizek – stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only
In the latter half of the 20th century, nations globally conducted frequent nuclear bomb tests, resulting in over 2,000 nuclear detonations from 1945 to 1996.
The United Nations states that approximately half of these were performed by the U.S., kicking off with the Trinity Test in 1945, which was dramatized in the film Oppenheimer.
These aboveground explosions propelled radioactive particles into the upper layers of the atmosphere.
These particles were then distributed by wind and weather conditions, eventually making their way back to Earth either through rainfall or simply settling on the ground, as outlined by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Although a 1963 treaty between the U.S., the U.K., and the Soviet Union prohibited atmospheric nuclear tests, France and China persisted in conducting them, as noted by the U.N.
Even though these nuclear tests have largely ceased, the radioactive material they released still lingers in the environment.
To gauge the impact of this lingering radioactivity on today’s wild boars, the researchers behind the new study examined the ratio of cesium-135 to cesium-137 isotopes in samples of boar meat.
A high ratio would point to a significant presence of radioactive cesium originating from weapons tests, while a low ratio would suggest exposure to Chernobyl’s radioactive fallout.
The team gathered meat samples from 11 regions in southern Bavaria from 2019 to 2021. Their findings indicated that between 10 and 68 percent of the radioactive material in these samples was the result of nuclear testing.
What’s more, an overwhelming 88 percent of these samples had contamination levels that surpassed Germany’s food safety guidelines, with some exceeding the limit by up to 25 times.
According to the study, in about one-fourth of these samples, the contamination from nuclear testing alone was sufficient to deem the meat unfit for human consumption.
Although radiation levels have decreased in various other animal species since the Chernobyl disaster, they’ve stayed elevated in wild boars.
According to Steinhauser, the boars’ dietary preference for deer truffles might be a contributing factor. These fungi, largely ignored by other animals, grow just below the soil’s surface and soak up cesium, making them more radioactive than some other natural food options.
When the boars eat these truffles during the winter months, their own levels of radioactivity rise.
To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here.
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