Study: Nuclear Weapons Tests Behind Radioactivity in Wild Boars

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Facts

  • According to a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology on Wednesday, atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted in the mid-1900s are behind high levels of radioactivity found in Europe's wild boars.1
  • The researchers tested boar meat samples for the radioactive isotope cesium-137. They observed that the boars have a higher ratio of cesium-135 than -137, indicating more fallout from nuclear weapons explosions in the 1950s and 1960s than nuclear reactors.2
  • The study is expected to solve the so-called wild boar paradox — a phenomenon in which radioactivity levels have fallen in other animals since the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster but persist in Europe's wild boars.3
  • Despite having a 30-year half-life, the amount of cesium-137 in affected boars remains about the same in some locations. According to researchers, cesium contamination is persistent due to the mixing of nuclear weapons and Chernobyl isotopes.4
  • Additionally, as soil slowly absorbed radiation, the isotopes reportedly impacted deer truffles — underground mushrooms eaten almost exclusively by wild boars. The study found that about 88% of the deer truffle samples exceeded regulatory limits for radioactive cesium in food.5
  • Though over 2M wild boars wander across Germany and Austria, often destroying crops and causing car accidents, they're largely protected from hunters as they're unsafe for human consumption due to their radioactivity.6

Sources: 1Vice, 2BBC Science Focus Magazine, 3Sky News, 4Business Insider, 5Express.co.uk and 6Daily Mail.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by American Scientist. This study illustrates just one of the ways in which radioactive fallout from atmospheric nuclear testing in the 20th century has lasted four decades after such experiments ended. In addition to turning wild boars into an irradiated menace, the explosions that dispersed radioactive debris in the atmosphere have also increased cancer risks in humans through internal and external irradiation exposures.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Forbes. Nuclear weapons testing could be behind radioactive wild boars, but it's a fallacy that detonations into the atmosphere other than the Castle Bravo test — and even the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents — have caused adverse human health effects, as the radiation effects are not statistically different from zero. This unfounded fear of radiation must be fought, as it causes more harm than good.