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294TABLE 12.5. Concentration (pCi/l) of ChernobylRadionuclides in Milk in the United States, 1986(Various Authors from RADNET, 2008)Radionuclide Concentration Location DateI-131 560 Redland May 5167 Willamette May 12Valley88 Vermont May82 New York area May 2852.5 Maine May 1640 New York area May 12Cs-137 20.3 Maine June39.7 Chester, New May 17Jersey40.5 New York City May66 Seattle June 480 New York area May 1297 Willamette May 19ValleyCs-134 9.7 Maine JuneCs-134 + 1,250 ∗ East May 5Cs-137Washington∗ Food, pCi/kg.Austria, West Germany, Greece, Yugoslavia,Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, Egypt, France,The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. Thecontaminated foodstuffs, in order of prevalence,were: apple juice, cheese, pasta, oregano,berry juices, mushrooms, hazelnuts, filberts(Corylus sp.), sage (Salvia sp.), figs, laurel leaves,tea, thyme, red lentils (Lens sp.), juniper, carawayseeds (Carum sp.), endive (Cychorium sp.),apricots, and even Swiss chocolate.Table 12.5 shows the level of radioactive contaminationin local milk after the catastropheall over of the United States. In spite of allthe measurements, according to the official derivedintervention level (DIL), it is a fact thatChernobyl fallout has deposited harmful radioisotopesacross the entire extent of NorthAmerica.Concentration of Chernobyl Cs-134 + Cs-137 in elk meat was up to 3,000 Bq/kg (RAD-NET, 2008); the concentration of Ru-106 andCs-137 in fiddleheads was 261 and 328 pCi/kg,respectively; in mushrooms the C-137 concentrationwas 3,750 pCi/kg (RADNET, 2008).12. Some examples of radioactive contaminationof food products in other countries arelisted in Table 12.6. Although Cs-137, Sr-90,Pu, and Am concentrate in the root zone ofplants, they will be mobilized for decades tohundreds of years into the future, and agriculturalproducts will continue to contain radioactivityin all of the Northern Hemisphere countriescontaminated by Chernobyl.12.2. Monitoring of IncorporatedRadionuclidesFor effective radiation protection, especiallyfor children, it is necessary to monitor notonly food, but also to directly monitor radionuclidesincorporated into the body. Suchmonitoring can determine the level of contaminationfor each particular location in a contaminatedterritory and for every group of peoplewith high levels of incorporated radionuclidesin order to adequately implement radiationprotection.12.2.1. BelarusTo determine the correlation between radioactivecontamination of food and incorporatedradionuclides in children (as children arethe most subject to radiation risk) the BEL-RAD Institute chose the most intensely contaminatedterritories from the point of view ofsize of the mid-annual effective radiation doseand the level of local food contamination.From 1995 to 2007 BELRAD conductedmeasurements of absorbed radionuclidesin about 300,000 Belarussian children.Measurement of the Cs-137 contamination iscarried out by automated complex spectrometryof internal radiation, utilizing an individualradiation counter (IRC) “SCANNER-3.” The Institute of Ecological and MedicalSystems, Kiev, Ukraine, makes the equipment.The BELRAD Institute has eight suchIRC SCANNER-3M instruments, whichmeasure the activity of incorporated gammaradionuclides(Cs-137, Cs-134, Ca-40, Ra-226,