4 ms·

Can you read it? I'm looking for quantitative data and see: "Belastung von 0,008 Millisievert zur Folge." If this is 8 microsieverts... what's the timescale?

Can you read it? I'm looking for quantitative data and see: "Belastung von 0,008 Millisievert zur Folge." If this is 8 microsieverts... what's the timescale? 8 microsieverts is quite small compared to everyday things like cosmic rays [1]. [1] https://xkcd.com/radiation/ https://xkcd.com/radiation/

detaro 8y ago
It's for a 200g portion of (relatively highly contaminated) mushrooms, not a timescale.
- godelski 8y ago
  I'm going to save everyone some time here. acidburnNSA is a reactor scientist (he pops up in most of these nuclear threads). He's leading you on because your information is bad. Fact is that food didn't get to dangerous levels. (I'd trust the domain expert) Pulling from __ph__'s link (and a google translate). > The consumption of 200 grams of mushrooms containing 3,000 becquerels of cesium-137 per kilogram results in a load of 0.008 millisieverts. This corresponds to the radiation exposure during a flight from Frankfurt to Gran Canaria. > In Germany, it is not permitted to market foods with a radio cesium content of more than 600 becquerels per kilogram. For self-consumption, this restriction does not apply. (may notice here how overly cautious we tend to be with radioactive dosages.) > If venison or wild mushrooms are consumed in normal amounts, the additional radiation exposure is comparatively low, but avoidable. To summarize the article: Wild mushrooms and some wild life may have higher than normal radiation levels. Take caution if you intend to consume vast amounts of quantities. You'll probably be fine, but why risk? If you are only taking "normal" amounts then there is no concern.
  - detaro 8y ago
    I can read the article, I was merely providing the information asked for and letting people come to their own conclusion.
  - _ph_ 8y ago
    The website I linked is the federal agency for nuclear safety. Depends entirely what you mean by "dangerous levels". It is contaminated enough, that mushrooms from the forests are not allowed to be sold as food. Yes, a single serving won't have a significant impact on your health, but it is recommended not to eat much of them. The situation is worse with some wild boar, which eat a lot of those mushrooms and accumulate cesioum over many years. And perhaps a relevant information: the Bavarian forests are about 600 miles from the Chernobyl site.
    - godelski 8y ago
      Dangerous levels has an exact definition. The EU sets them at 20mSv/yr. To put that in perspective, 1Sv is equivalent to a 5% increase in chance of getting cancer during your lifetime (granted, that dose needs to be spread out). So you can see that they keep it REALLY low. Extra safety is used because they use the linear no-threshold model. Yes, the model is linear so you can extrapolate easily. Those levels that acidburn was talking about, mentioned in the article, are REALLY low. The reason government is overly cautious with radiation is 1) fear 2) you can't control sources so you say "if we set this threshold we'll never put anyone in danger even if they take in large amounts from other sources that we can't control." Remember, each of those 200g of mushrooms (which looks like an upper limit of measurement, not average nor lower) is like a 5hr plane ride in a non-northern route (8uSv). People take plane rides worse than that several times a week and are safe. (see below for ridiculousness of this "danger") You also realize that over time these things degrade, right? Not just by radioactive decay, but because organisms and chemical reactions break down the radioactive materials. You seem to be implying that over the many years it is getting worse. Which is just untrue (and frankly should not pass a smell test). Side note: 200g mushrooms = 0.008mSv (upper limit) 20mSv/(0.008mSv)*200g = 500kg of mushrooms. That's how many you would need to eat in a year to get to the legal limit. Let's be real here, this is just a ridiculous amount of mushrooms that you have to consume within a year. That's over a kilo a day. Note that this limit used to also be 50mSv for radiation workers. Astronauts are allowed much more. tldr: Trust the domain expert over some article you read on the internet.
      - _ph_ 8y ago

detaro 8y ago

It's for a 200g portion of (relatively highly contaminated) mushrooms, not a timescale.

godelski 8y ago
I'm going to save everyone some time here. acidburnNSA is a reactor scientist (he pops up in most of these nuclear threads). He's leading you on because your information is bad. Fact is that food didn't get to dangerous levels. (I'd trust the domain expert) Pulling from __ph__'s link (and a google translate). > The consumption of 200 grams of mushrooms containing 3,000 becquerels of cesium-137 per kilogram results in a load of 0.008 millisieverts. This corresponds to the radiation exposure during a flight from Frankfurt to Gran Canaria. > In Germany, it is not permitted to market foods with a radio cesium content of more than 600 becquerels per kilogram. For self-consumption, this restriction does not apply. (may notice here how overly cautious we tend to be with radioactive dosages.) > If venison or wild mushrooms are consumed in normal amounts, the additional radiation exposure is comparatively low, but avoidable. To summarize the article: Wild mushrooms and some wild life may have higher than normal radiation levels. Take caution if you intend to consume vast amounts of quantities. You'll probably be fine, but why risk? If you are only taking "normal" amounts then there is no concern.
- detaro 8y ago
  I can read the article, I was merely providing the information asked for and letting people come to their own conclusion.
- _ph_ 8y ago
  The website I linked is the federal agency for nuclear safety. Depends entirely what you mean by "dangerous levels". It is contaminated enough, that mushrooms from the forests are not allowed to be sold as food. Yes, a single serving won't have a significant impact on your health, but it is recommended not to eat much of them. The situation is worse with some wild boar, which eat a lot of those mushrooms and accumulate cesioum over many years. And perhaps a relevant information: the Bavarian forests are about 600 miles from the Chernobyl site.
  - godelski 8y ago
    Dangerous levels has an exact definition. The EU sets them at 20mSv/yr. To put that in perspective, 1Sv is equivalent to a 5% increase in chance of getting cancer during your lifetime (granted, that dose needs to be spread out). So you can see that they keep it REALLY low. Extra safety is used because they use the linear no-threshold model. Yes, the model is linear so you can extrapolate easily. Those levels that acidburn was talking about, mentioned in the article, are REALLY low. The reason government is overly cautious with radiation is 1) fear 2) you can't control sources so you say "if we set this threshold we'll never put anyone in danger even if they take in large amounts from other sources that we can't control." Remember, each of those 200g of mushrooms (which looks like an upper limit of measurement, not average nor lower) is like a 5hr plane ride in a non-northern route (8uSv). People take plane rides worse than that several times a week and are safe. (see below for ridiculousness of this "danger") You also realize that over time these things degrade, right? Not just by radioactive decay, but because organisms and chemical reactions break down the radioactive materials. You seem to be implying that over the many years it is getting worse. Which is just untrue (and frankly should not pass a smell test). Side note: 200g mushrooms = 0.008mSv (upper limit) 20mSv/(0.008mSv)*200g = 500kg of mushrooms. That's how many you would need to eat in a year to get to the legal limit. Let's be real here, this is just a ridiculous amount of mushrooms that you have to consume within a year. That's over a kilo a day. Note that this limit used to also be 50mSv for radiation workers. Astronauts are allowed much more. tldr: Trust the domain expert over some article you read on the internet.
    - _ph_ 8y ago