Alpha and beta radioactivity in mushrooms.

Mushrooms are considered suitable bioindicators of environmental pollution arising from certain elements, including radionuclides, because of their tendency to bioaccumulate varying levels of these essential and non-essential elements. Different species have different capacities for retaining individual radionuclides, both natural and anthropogenic. Medium and long-lived isotopes generally pose a very significant hazard to human health. Following pollution events, the consumption of mushrooms may pose a risk from exposure to highly radiotoxic emitters. This review focuses on the most common natural and anthropogenic alpha- and beta-emitting radionuclides in wild mushrooms worldwide, but also includes those that are less critical from a radiation-hazard perspective. The activity concentrations of the reported radionuclides accumulated in macrofungi range over nine orders of magnitude.