Radiotoxic 210Po and 210Pb in uncooked and cooked Boletaceae mushrooms from Yunnan (China) including intake rates and effective exposure doses

Abstract The article presents results of a study on the radioactivity and exposure from a highly toxic alpha-radiation emitter polonium 210Po, and beta emitter lead 210Pb in several species of Boletaceae mushrooms and stir-fried mushroom meals from China. Edible mushrooms can efficiently concentrate some elements in flesh but little is known on highly toxic alpha- and beta emitters. In this study, the absolute values of radioactivity (Bq·kg−1 dry weight) for 210Po were in the range 2.0 ± 2.0 to 308 ± 9 in fresh species and 22.1 ± 1.2 to 142 ± 4 in a ready to eat meals, and for 210Pb were 3.6 ± 0.5 to 51.8 ± 2.9 and 3.0 ± 0.14 to 9.6 ± 0.5, respectively. The studied batches of a corresponding species of mushrooms – raw and cooked - were not equivalent regarding the homogeneity of the composition. However the raw mushrooms (ingredient for any cooking), showed greater radioactivity in relation to stir-fried meals, and that can imply on a partial loss of nuclides. A daily portion of 100 g of stir-fried mushrooms could provide 210Po and 210Pb radiation in the range 0.2–2.1 μSv and 0.02–0.06 μSv, respectively. Assessed, the cumulative doses of exposure to 210Po were 1.4–14 μSv in a week period and 75–722 μSv at annual timescale, and of 210Pb amounted at 0.15–0.46 μSv and 8.3–24 μSv, respectively. The 210Po can be possibly considered as a major source of ionizing radiation activity for persons with high mushroom meals consumption in SW Asia, while the number of available data is limited.