The role of mushrooms and berries in the formation of internal exposure doses to the population of Russia after the Chernobyl accident

The present work is devoted to an analysis of the data on the dynamics of 137Cs transfer factors in the current most critical (for the population of Russia) links of food chain: 'soil mushrooms' and 'soil berries'. Data were obtained during 1986-1994 in the most contaminated region of Russia - the Bryansk region -and then were used for assessing the contribution of forest products consumed by the population of contaminated territories to internal exposure doses. It was shown in contrast to agricultural food products (where natural decontamination took place quickly) that radioactive decontamination of mushrooms and berries during the eight years after the Chernobyl accident was very slow. Use is made of aggregated radioecological data together with broad assumptions about the consumption of forest products to predict the doses that might arise from consumption of such foodstuffs. These predictions are then compared with values derived from whole-body measurements. (Author)