Minsk - Tons of radioactive mushrooms are routinely exported
from Belarus to European Union nations, a Belarusian official said
Monday.
Relatively high EU maximums for mushroom contamination by isotopes
of Strontium, a radioactive element, make 'substantial volumes' of
fungus illegal for consumption in Belarus but a saleable delicacy in
the West, said Yakov Kenigsberg, chairman of Belarus' National
Commission for Radioactive Protection.
The former Soviet republic was badly hit by the 1986 Chernobyl
nuclear power accident, and an estimated one quarter of its territory
contains lingering effects from the nuclear reactor meltdown.
Thick forests and swamps prevalent in Belarus are ideal conditions
for mushrooms, and local businessmen are doing a thriving business
collecting Belarusian mushrooms and selling them largely to Polish
traders, Kenigsberg claimed.
'The Poles are buying Chanterelles containing high dosages of
radiation, because in the EU these mushrooms are not considered
radioactive,' he said.
Belarusian standards of acceptable radiation are among the world's
most stringent, in large part in response to fallout from the
Chernobyl accident.
Mushrooms are relatively resistant to lingering radiation,
absorbing deadly gamma rays rather than dying from them.
The most tradeable mushroom is, according to Kenigsberg, the
Golden Chanterelle (Latin: Cantharellus Subalbidus), an orange or
yellow mushroom known for a fruity smell and mild peppery taste.
Trade between Poland and Belarus is limited primarily to small-
scale import and export, frequently with Belarusian agricultural or
forest products exchanged for Polish consumer goods.
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