Mushrooms as an indicator of radioactive contamination

Plant species, and through them humans, can be threatened by radioactive substances even in cases of low radioactivity in certain parts of the ecological chain. All this is a consequence of the bioaccumulation of certain radionuclides in some plant species, which become "bioindicators", and sometimes they can have significantly large accumulations of radioactive substances and therefore be dangerous for human consumption. Their determination facilitates the monitoring of the level of radioactive contamination of an ecosystem from the place of origin to man. Mushrooms can represent a bioindicator of radioactive contamination, and this high radioactivity is associated with the possibility of binding radionuclides from the forest floor for several years. The Department for Radiation Hygiene, at the Scientific Institute of Veterinary Medicine of Serbia in Belgrade, deals with veterinary-sanitary and phyto-sanitary control in border and internal traffic in the Republic of Serbia. During 2020-2024. 133 samples of mushrooms that are used for human consumption in several forms: fresh, canned and dried or in powder were carried out using the gamma spectrometric method. Based on the obtained results of radioactivity measurements, we can conclude that the activities of anthropogenic radionuclides, in our case 137Cs, were within the permitted limits for the given forms of the product. Fresh mushrooms from internal traffic, forest mushrooms, had the highest activity, where the measured activity of 137Cs was in the ratio of 0.34-37.25 Bq/kg, the value of which was slightly higher but still below the permitted limits prescribed by our regulations. The radioactivity of the environment is constantly decreasing after the nuclear accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima, but plant species, such as mushrooms, can be good sources of pollution in certain parts of the ecosystem due to their ability to accumulate and bind radioactive substances. This is why constant radiation-hygiene control of samples from the environment is necessary, because this is the only way we can ensure correct and radiation-free products for human consumption.