BERLIN – For a look at just how long radioactivity can hang around, consider Germany's wild boars.
A quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union carried a cloud of radiation across Europe, these animals are radioactive enough that people are urged not to eat them. And the mushrooms the pigs dine on aren't fit for consumption either.
Germany's experience shows what could await Japan — if the problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant get any worse.
The German boars roam in forests nearly 950 miles (1,500 kilometers ) from Chernobyl. Yet, the amount of radioactive cesium-137 within their tissue often registers dozens of times beyond the recommended limit for consumption and thousands of times above normal.
"We still feel the consequences of Chernobyl's fallout here," said Christian Kueppers, a radiation expert at Germany's Institute for Applied Ecology in Freiburg.
"The contamination won't go away any time soon — with cesium's half-life being roughly 30 years, the radioactivity will only slightly decrease in the coming years."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_germany_radioactive_boars
sounds like a good title for a science fiction movie but it's true....
You girls always come up with some excuse for not wanting sex with us boars!
Your not supposed to eat more than 2 tins of Tuna per week either, because of high mercury levels in their spawning areas. That has something to do with Japan too.
It's evern worst if you eat whales - and particularly dolphins in Japan (aside the moral hazards). Dolphins from coastal areas around Japan have about 400 times the safe level of mercury in their tissue because of its bioaccumulatory nature! Plus zinc, arsenic etc.
Same story with lamb meat from Cumbria in the UK. It was only made legal to sell for human consumption again a couple of years ago - I still think selling older sheep is restricted.
Boars will live a bit longer too and have more time to accumulate radioactivity. Iodine 129 has a half life of 15 million years!
Stop eating completely! Is it so hard to understand?
On the second thought may be we can solve the problem with electricity... by glowing in the dark!
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