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Germany still has significant radiation in wild boars (and mushrooms) from the Chernobyl fallout: https://www.umweltanalysen.com/en/wild-boar/cesium-137-contam

Germany still has significant radiation in wild boars (and mushrooms) from the Chernobyl fallout: https://www.umweltanalysen.com/en/wild-boar/cesium-137-contamination-of-wild-boars/ https://www.umweltanalysen.com/en/wild-boar/cesium-137-conta... > From September 1st, 2017 to December 31st, 2019, muscle meat samples from 376 wild boars were delivered by the forest services (Bodenmais 129, Dahn 123 and Zusmarshausen 124). So far, 355 samples have been measured for Cs-137 activity. The Cs-137 contamination of wild boars fluctuated seasonally depending on the availability of individual food components within a study area, with the variability of the measured values being up to three orders of magnitude. The values ranged from 0.6 Bq/kg fresh mass (FM) (Dahn) to 16,704 Bq/kg (Bodenmais).

godelski 5y ago
This constantly gets brought up but few people run the numbers because you can safely eat kilograms of each a day. You can see the full calculations if you search my comments. The truth is just that we're really good at detecting radiation because doing so allows us to better detect weapons.
- deeg 5y ago
  How does the radiation from boar meat compare to sunlight? E.g. eating 500 grams is similar to sitting in the sun for 5 minutes, in very rough comparison.
  - pvg 5y ago
    It mostly doesn't compare - sitting in the sun for five minutes doesn't expose you to much in the way of ionizing radiation as almost all of it is filtered out by the atmosphere. And when you get out of the sun, it stops. Radioactively contaminated food glows at your insides for much longer. Cs-137 biological half-life is weeks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137#Health_risk_of_radioactive_caesium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137#Health_risk_of_rad...
  - godelski 5y ago
    Radiation is a pretty weird thing that is easily misunderstood because people use the same term to talk about very different things. While sitting in the sun will cause UV radiation and can result in skin cancer it's not the same as interesting cesium. Though both can cause cancer. But if we're just talking about increase chance of cancer iirc the meat calculations you need to eat like 15 kg of boar a day from that region (like 3kg if the highest measured). I'll let you make your guesstimate from there. And we're not even talking about risk of cancer from eating that much meat.
    - deeg 5y ago
      Thanks for the reply, especially given that I worded my question poorly. In my barely educated opinion the health risks of the radiation level measured in the boar meat is so low as to be ignorable. It might help people (like me) to be able to compare the health risk to other forms of radiation that we already accept.
      - godelski 5y ago
        > In my barely educated opinion the health risks of the radiation level measured in the boar meat is so low as to be ignorable. This is fairly accurate. Though I wouldn't seek out those boars. I just wouldn't freak out if you found out later. I would say that the bigger thing we can do is learn to relax and admit that we don't know much about topics we don't know much about. I'm all for more information, but this problem is more abstract and applies to far more things than radiation. Often the more heated a topic the less the average person knows about it though their confidence is often high.
- Krasnol 5y ago
  The thing is: it doesn't matter what me or you think about it. There are food regulations in Germany and they need to be obeyed.
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    But regulations can be changed, if they are stupid. So are they stupid(overprotective), or do they make sense, in the meaning there is a real danger from eating contaminated boar?
    - Krasnol 5y ago
      I don't think they're stupid just because some anonymous person on the internet says so and especially not if it's a regulation nobody profits from. There will be reasons for that.
      - freeflight 5y ago
        Particularly as there still seems to be quite a disagreement over the dangers of Caesium-137 across the pond. The English, American sources dominated, Wikiarticle makes it sound mostly benign. Yet European language articles, like French and German, will be quite a lot more skeptical. This even goes up to an official levels where afaik the EU has associated more dangers and risks with lower Caesium-137 than their US counterparts, thus the "tolerated levels" of it also vary greatly between the two.
        Krasnol 5y ago
        The EU just recently decided that nuclear energy is green because some of the influential countries failed to get into renewables and now need to greenwash their rotting nuclear fleet. I rather trust my local scientists who care about peoples health.
        godelski 5y ago
        Your local scientists often advocate for nuclear. So I'm a bit confused. Sure there's some that don't but there's no large group that has unanimous agreement on anything.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
trenchgun 5y ago
What do you mean my significant? See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28912557 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28912557
- Krasnol 5y ago
  Significant means that hunters need to hand in their boar, it will be checked and if it surpasses the health levels defined, they're reimbursed with 250€ for every boar. This is taxpayer money. And just the state of Bavaria pays millions every year.

godelski 5y ago

This constantly gets brought up but few people run the numbers because you can safely eat kilograms of each a day. You can see the full calculations if you search my comments. The truth is just that we're really good at detecting radiation because doing so allows us to better detect weapons.

deeg 5y ago
How does the radiation from boar meat compare to sunlight? E.g. eating 500 grams is similar to sitting in the sun for 5 minutes, in very rough comparison.
- pvg 5y ago
  It mostly doesn't compare - sitting in the sun for five minutes doesn't expose you to much in the way of ionizing radiation as almost all of it is filtered out by the atmosphere. And when you get out of the sun, it stops. Radioactively contaminated food glows at your insides for much longer. Cs-137 biological half-life is weeks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137#Health_risk_of_radioactive_caesium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137#Health_risk_of_rad...
- godelski 5y ago
  Radiation is a pretty weird thing that is easily misunderstood because people use the same term to talk about very different things. While sitting in the sun will cause UV radiation and can result in skin cancer it's not the same as interesting cesium. Though both can cause cancer. But if we're just talking about increase chance of cancer iirc the meat calculations you need to eat like 15 kg of boar a day from that region (like 3kg if the highest measured). I'll let you make your guesstimate from there. And we're not even talking about risk of cancer from eating that much meat.
  - deeg 5y ago
    Thanks for the reply, especially given that I worded my question poorly. In my barely educated opinion the health risks of the radiation level measured in the boar meat is so low as to be ignorable. It might help people (like me) to be able to compare the health risk to other forms of radiation that we already accept.
    - godelski 5y ago
      > In my barely educated opinion the health risks of the radiation level measured in the boar meat is so low as to be ignorable. This is fairly accurate. Though I wouldn't seek out those boars. I just wouldn't freak out if you found out later. I would say that the bigger thing we can do is learn to relax and admit that we don't know much about topics we don't know much about. I'm all for more information, but this problem is more abstract and applies to far more things than radiation. Often the more heated a topic the less the average person knows about it though their confidence is often high.
Krasnol 5y ago
The thing is: it doesn't matter what me or you think about it. There are food regulations in Germany and they need to be obeyed.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  But regulations can be changed, if they are stupid. So are they stupid(overprotective), or do they make sense, in the meaning there is a real danger from eating contaminated boar?
  - Krasnol 5y ago
    I don't think they're stupid just because some anonymous person on the internet says so and especially not if it's a regulation nobody profits from. There will be reasons for that.
    - freeflight 5y ago
      Particularly as there still seems to be quite a disagreement over the dangers of Caesium-137 across the pond. The English, American sources dominated, Wikiarticle makes it sound mostly benign. Yet European language articles, like French and German, will be quite a lot more skeptical. This even goes up to an official levels where afaik the EU has associated more dangers and risks with lower Caesium-137 than their US counterparts, thus the "tolerated levels" of it also vary greatly between the two.
      - Krasnol 5y ago
        The EU just recently decided that nuclear energy is green because some of the influential countries failed to get into renewables and now need to greenwash their rotting nuclear fleet. I rather trust my local scientists who care about peoples health.
        godelski 5y ago
        Your local scientists often advocate for nuclear. So I'm a bit confused. Sure there's some that don't but there's no large group that has unanimous agreement on anything.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

trenchgun 5y ago

What do you mean my significant? See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28912557 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28912557

Krasnol 5y ago
Significant means that hunters need to hand in their boar, it will be checked and if it surpasses the health levels defined, they're reimbursed with 250€ for every boar. This is taxpayer money. And just the state of Bavaria pays millions every year.