Radioactive wild pigs roam German countryside. Don’t just blame Chernobyl, study says
Though they’re known for their love of sausage and schnitzel, many Germans shy away from one type of meat: home-grown wild boar.
The tusked animals, which roam the mountainous region of Bavaria, are highly radioactive, posing a danger to those who consume them.
Their contamination has long been blamed on the 1986 nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, but the precise cause remained a mystery.
Now, after sampling and studying the boar meat, researchers have discovered the infamous Soviet disaster is not the sole cause of the pigs’ radioactivity. It turns out, nuclear weapons tests from over 60 years ago are also to blame, according to a study published on Aug. 30 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Between 2019 and 2021, hunters provided researchers with pieces of meat from 48 boar for analysis. The tissue samples, typically sourced from the animals’ tongues, were studied for isotopic signatures.
In particular, researchers scanned for two types of the chemical element cesium — cesium-135 and cesium-137 — which can be traced directly to nuclear meltdowns and nuclear explosions, respectively.
The researchers, who are affiliated with the University of Hannover, found that the overwhelming majority of samples, 88%, exceeded the limit of cesium considered safe to consume.
While most of the contamination was caused by nuclear meltdown, nuclear explosions were also found to be important contributing factors.
“About 25% of wild boar samples exhibit such significant contributions from weapons-137Cs that the fraction of weapons-137Cs alone is high enough to exceed the European regulatory limit,” researchers said.
This high level of explosion-related radioactivity indicates the lasting effects that nuclear testing has on the environment — even in areas thousands of miles from blast sites.
Between 1945 and 1996, over 2,000 nuclear bombs were detonated worldwide, about 500 of which were exploded above ground, according to the United Nations.
“The atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted by any nation (USA; USSR; UK) impacted the entire northern hemisphere quite evenly,” Georg Steinhauser, one of the study authors, told McClatchy News.
“There is enormous upward draft after an explosion,” Steinhauser said. “By the time the fallout falls downs to Earth, the radioactive material has evenly distributed in the higher atmosphere.”
Though the study accounts for the source of the boar’s radioactivity, it doesn’t explain the strangely sticky nature of the contamination in wild boar.
Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon where the boar, unlike other animals, fail to lose their radioactivity over time the “wild boar paradox.”
“With the effective half-lives of 137Cs in wild boars being longer than the physical half-life of 137Cs, this phenomenon sometimes must have appeared like a violation of the law of radioactive decay,” researchers said.
But, rather than the laws of physics being suspended, it’s possible the pigs’ penchant for underground mushrooms is to blame.
The fungi, known as deer truffles, are soaked in weapons-grade cesium, which could help sustain their high levels of radioactivity. The research is not conclusive though.
Despite all the talk of radioactive food, Steinhauser insists the study shouldn’t spoil anyone’s appetite.
“Vulnerable food items like European wild boars are rigorously monitored and thus safe,” Steinhauser said. “Apart from that, a one-time consumption of contaminated meat does not equate unacceptable risk.”
But, with the war in Ukraine intensifying, the authors emphasize the importance of understanding the risks that nuclear weapons pose, not just in the immediate term, but for generations to come.
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