Activity Concentrations of 210Pb, 137Cs, and 40K In Wild Mushrooms From Serbia and Their Effective Dose to Ingestion

Fourteen samples of nine different species were collected in the region of Fruška gora, the suburban areas of Belgrade, and the vicinity of Vlasina Lake (Serbia) have been analyzed from the radiological point of view. Specific activities of radionuclides 210Pb, 137Cs, and 40K were measured using a semiconductor HPGe spectrometer system in these wild mushroom samples. The activity concentrations of all measured dried wild mushrooms are for 210Pb: between 2.05 Bq/kg and 9.74 Bq/kg; for 137Cs: between < 0.2 Bq/kg and 19.3 Bq/kg; for 40K between 704 Bq/kg and 2530 Bq/kg. The total individual annual effective doses due to ingestion of 210Pb, 137Cs, and 40K radionuclides within a 0.5 kg dry mass of the wild mushrooms is between 3.99 µSv and 10.81 µSv, and are much lower than the recommended level for the public (1 mSv/y).