A Review of the Occurrence of Alpha-Emitting Radionuclides in Wild Mushrooms

Abstract

Alpha-emitting radioisotopes are the most toxic among all radionuclides. In particular, medium to long-lived isotopes of the heavier metals are of the greatest concern to human health and radiological safety. This review focuses on the most common alpha-emitting radionuclides of natural and anthropogenic origin in wild mushrooms from around the world. Mushrooms bio-accumulate a range of mineral ionic constituents and radioactive elements to different extents, and are therefore considered as suitable bio-indicators of environmental pollution. The available literature indicates that the natural radionuclide 210Po is accumulated at the highest levels (up to 22 kBq/kg dry weight (dw) in wild mushrooms from Finland), while among synthetic nuclides, the highest levels of up to 53.8 Bq/kg dw of 239+240Pu were reported in Ukrainian mushrooms. The capacity to retain the activity of individual nuclides varies between mushrooms, which is of particular interest for edible species that are consumed either locally or, in some cases, also traded on an international scale. The effective radiation dose from the ingestion of this food can reportedly range from 0.033 µSv/kg dw to 26.8 mSv/kg and varies depending on the country. Following pollution events, such consumption may expose consumers to highly radiotoxic decay particles produced by alpha emitters.