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.

On the occurrence, origin, and intake of the nuclides, 210Po and 210Pb, in sclerotia of Wolfiporia cocos collected in China

“…However, in the case of the external part consumption, it might be much higher and result in an annual effective dose of 0.88 µSv a −1 dw to 0.70 mSv a −1 dw from 210 Po decay while of 0.58 µSv a −1 dw to 0.22 mSv a −1 dw from 210 Pb decay. The calculated values of effective doses from 210 Po and 210 Pb ingestion with W. cocos are similar or lower (in the case of inner parts) in comparison to other studies of wild fungi from other parts of the world (Hendry et al, 2009;Vaaramaa et al, 2009;Gwynn et al, 2013;Guillén and Baeza, 2014;Bagchi and Swaroop, 2016;Strumińska-Parulska et al, 2016; Pang et al, 2019;Poschl and Nollet, 2019;Strumińska-Parulska and Falandysz 2020). In general, when consumed with staple foodstuffs, the analyzed sclerotia would not significantly increase the values of the effective radiation doses from 210 Po and 210 Pb isotopes.…”

Nutritional and Other Trace Elements and Their Associations in Raw King Bolete Mushrooms, Boletus edulis

“…U is a natural but radiotoxic element ( 234 U, 235 U, 236 U, and 238 U isotopes are emitters of highly toxic alpha-particles, consisting of a 4He nucleus with two protons and two neutrons), which is ubiquitous in food webs including wild mushrooms, while the type of emission varies with the isotope [ 49 ]. The Quadruple ICP-MS analysis allows for rapid and accurate measurement of the total U in a digested sample.…”

“…In B. edulis harvested away from local (anthropogenic) sources of emission, trace elements can be found both of a beneficial and toxic nature in terms of human health, i.e., essential, toxic, radiotoxic, or non-essential elements [ 15 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. The artificial radioactive isotopes of caesium ( 134 Cs and 137 Cs) are bio-concentrated by ectomycorrhizal mushrooms and were found at high activity concentrations in the young, button maturity stage, fruiting bodies of B. edulis as well as Amanita muscaria many years after the major contamination events [ 52 , 53 ].…”

210Po and 210Pb in King Bolete (Boletus edulis) and Related Mushroom Species: Estimated Effective Radiation Dose and Geospatial Distribution in Central and Eastern Europe

“…studied in other countries. For example, 210 Po and 210 Pb activity concentrations in Finnish mushrooms ranged from 1.38 to 1174 ± 248 Bq•kg −1 db; in German mushrooms, from 1.0 to 640 Bq•kg −1 db; in Norwegian mushrooms, from 4.7 to 198 Bq•kg −1 db; in Chinese mushrooms, from 1.66 to 308 Bq•kg −1 db; while in other Polish species, the range was 0.23 to 36.4 Bq•kg −1 db [12,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”