One in three Saxon boars is radioactive

Friday, December 5, 2014

In Spider-Man, a bite from a radioactive spider turns Peter Parker into a superhero. So what would happen if you ate the flesh of a wild boar made radioactive by the lingering radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster?

Well, you'd be breaking German law if you wanted to find out. The safe legal limit for radiation in foodstuffs is 600 becquerels per kilogram, according to a story in Britain's The Telegraph and carcasses with a higher radiation level must be destroyed. Since 2012, every wild boar killed must be tested for radioactivity.

Even though Saxony is 700 miles from Chernobyl, 297 out of 752 wild boars tested there last year were over the limit. Boars become infected by eating mushrooms and truffles that have stored the radioactivity blown there by wind and rain. (Don't eat those mushrooms either.)   

But if some German wild boar meat accidentally falls into your mouth, fear not. "Regulations in Germany and the European Union are very strict," local environment ministry spokesman Frank Meyer told NBC News: 13 kilograms of contaminated meat has the same level of radiation as being on a transatlantic flight. BP