Radiation found in Kamarouski market bilberries from clean regions!

Eight cases of radioactive contamination have been recorded in berries at the main market of the capital. Interestingly, the deputy head of the food inspection department of Kamarouski market Alena Hobzin says that berries from Homel Region were not that radioactive:

“Four cases of radioactive contamination of berries were registered in June. One time people came to check the berries they had bought and the other three times they were brought by sellers. Those were berries from Kletsk District, Stoubtsy, Rudzensk and Ivanau District of Brest Region”.

The thing is that these districts are considered to be clean! For example, the Belarusian Committee “Children of Chernobyl” informed ERB that Ivanau District was considered to be the cleanest one in Brest Region.

So sellers may be telling lies when they say they gather berries in “clean” regions.

The situation did not change much in July, but it’s only the first decade of the month and the mushroom season has not started yet either. Alena Hobzin says:

“There were cases of contamination of berries this month. The berries came from Mahileu, Lahoisk and Luninets districts”. 

An ERB reporter went to Kamarouski market and bought a glass of bilberries from a granny who was selling them illegally. Then he went to the market’s laboratory to conduct an expertise.

If you check food for yourself it costs 1250 BRB. And you will have to queue for about 40 minutes. To obtain precise information you need at least half a litre of berries. They will be returned to you later. Our reporter bought berries gathered in Stoubtsy because there have been cases of contamination of berries from the region this year.

The check-up lasts for about 10 minutes. The ERB reporter was lucky. The level of radioactivity in the berries was 40 Bq.

According to Alena Hobzin:

“The highest level of radioactivity was registered in bilberries from Luninets District – about 2000 Bq while the permissible level is 185 Bq”.

In spite of this norm, specialists do not recommend eating products with the level of radioactivity over 100 Bq. Children should not eat anything containing over 30 Bq. So we would not treat a child to our “clean” berries.