A Quarter Century after Chernobyl Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany

[Raggz]

Source: Spiegel

Even worse, though, almost a quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, a good chunk of Germany's wild boar population remains slightly radioactive -- and the phenomenon has been costing the German government an increasing amount of money in recent years.

According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption. That total is more than four times higher than compensation payments made in 2007.

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,709345,00.html

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I always wanted a pig that glows in the dark.

[Oldtimeralso]

1. Does that mean

That the bacon fries itself. No need for a microwave.

[Downwinder]

2. It might be bacteria free.

[spirald]

3. in soviet russia...

...the bacon fries you!

[Kolesar]

7. He he he

thank you, Yakov Smirnov!

[Dogmudgeon]

4. 600 Bq / KG? That much?

So says the article in Der Spiegel.

A Becquerel (Bq) is one nuclear transformation -- one fission event per second, releasing 1 particle. The limit is six hundred Becquerels per second, per kilogram.

That's kind of low, isn't it? The radioactivity of just the Potassium-40 in your body is 5-10 times that level. The 7000 Bq level found in some of the animals in Bayerischer Wald is a little closer to being a problem. Still, if those pigs are glowing in the dark, they should stop feeding them light bulbs.

I'm surprised they even have equipment that can detect 600 Bq in the field.

On the other hand, I don't like anything extraneous in my food.

On the third hand, I don't eat wild boar, and if I did, I'd eat less than a kilogram at a meal. That's 2 pounds, 3 ounces of meat. 23 hot dogs.

Here's a http://www.deqtech.com/Resources/PDF/Radiation_Dose.pdf">radiation primer from a medical safety supply company. Accurate and fairly easy to read. Nothing about wild boar cuisine, but worth reading none the less.

--d!

[cosmicone]

5. How easy it is to alarm the believers isn't it? n/t

[bananas]

8. You're comparing apples to oranges (You're comparing potassium to cesium)

The Spiegel article specifically states cesium.
You're trying to compare that with potassium.
These are different atoms, and they affect the body differently.
The EU limit for cesium is 600 bq/kg: http://www.stuk.fi/stuk/tiedotteet/2003/en_GB/news_287/
The FDA limit for americium is 2 bq/kg: http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/ComplianceManuals/CompliancePolicyGuidanceManual/UCM074576
These are all different atoms, and they affect the body differently.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. here you go ...