Commission Recommendation of 14 April 2003 on the protection and information of the public with regard to exposure resulting from the continued radioactive caesium contamination of certain wild food products as a consequence of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station (notified under document number C(2003) 510)
Date: 2003-04-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Ukraine, consumer information, foodstuff, health risk, nuclear accident, radioactive pollution, wildlife

17.4.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 99/55

COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION

of 14 April 2003

on the protection and information of the public with regard to exposure resulting from the
continued radioactive caesium contamination of certain wild food products as a consequence of
the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station

(notified under document number C(2003) 510)

(2003/274/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

(6)

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community, and in particular Article 38(1), and the
second indent of Article 124 thereof,

Having regard to the opinion of
the Group of Experts
appointed by the Scientific and Technical Committee pursuant
to Article 31 of the Treaty,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Following the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power
station on 26 April 1986, considerable quantities of
radioactive materials were released into the atmosphere.

The fallout of radioactive caesium from the accident at
the Chernobyl nuclear power station has affected a wide
range of third countries.

Significant fallout has affected certain parts of the terri-
tories of a number of Member States and countries
applying for accession to the European Union.

Council Regulation (EEC) No 737/90 of 22 March 1990
on the conditions governing imports of agricultural
products originating in third countries following the
accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station (1), as
last amended by Regulation (EC) No 616/2000 (2), fixed
for agricultural products in third countries intended for
human consumption, maximum permitted levels of
radioactive caesium with which imports must comply
and in connection with which checks are carried out by
Member States.

In a statement to the Council, on 12 May 1986 in
connection to the adoption of Council Regulation (EEC)
No 1707/86 of 30 May 1986 on the conditions
governing imports of agricultural products originating in
third countries following the accident at the Chernobyl
station (3), Member States committed
nuclear power
themselves to apply the same maximum permitted levels
to trade within the Community.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1661/1999 of 27 July
1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of
Council Regulation (EEC) No 737/90 on the conditions
governing imports of agricultural products originating in
third countries following the accident at the Chernobyl
nuclear power station (4), as last amended by Regulation
(EC) No 1608/2002 (5), has, inter alia, introduced specific
conditions strengthening the controls on the imports of
non-cultivated mushrooms from a number of
third
countries.

(7)

(8)

(9)

Member States have applied and still apply when neces-
sary, similar checks and conditions for the placing on
the market of foodstuffs emanating from their national
food supply chains in particular with
agro-industrial
regard to meat from sheep and reindeer.

The measures in situ in the territories of the Member
States flow from existing legal obligations set out in
Council Directive 96/29/Euratom of 13 May 1996
laying down basic safety standards for the protection of
the health of the workers and the general public against
the dangers arising from ionising radiation (6) and in
Articles 35 and 36 of the Euratom Treaty.

Natural and semi-natural ecosystems such as forests and
wooded areas generally are the natural habitat of wild
game, berries and mushrooms and such ecosystems tend
to retain radioactive caesium in a cyclic exchange
between upper soil layers (litter), bacteria, microfauna,
microflora and vegetation. In addition the soil of such
ecosystems which consists for the most part of organic
matter tends to increase the biological availability of
radioactive caesium.

(10) Wild berries like bilberries, cloudberries, cranberries,
raspberries, blackberries and wild strawberries, edible
wild mushrooms (chanterelles, bay boletus, hedgehogs,
for example), wild game meat from roe deer and red
deer and carnivorous freshwater fish from lakes (pike
the
and perch,
European Union continue to show levels of radioactive
caesium exceeding 600 Bq/kg.

in certain regions of

for example)

(1) OJ L 82, 29.3.1990, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 75, 24.3.2000, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 146, 31.5.1986, p. 88.

(4) OJ L 197, 29.7.1999, p. 17.
(5) OJ L 243, 11.9.2002, p. 7.
(6) OJ L 159, 29.6.1996, p. 1.

L 99/56

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

17.4.2003

(11) Mushrooms of the mycorrhizal species (Boletus edulis, for
example) and meat of wild boar were affected much later
by the fallout and today present very high levels of
radioactive caesium contamination in areas with the
highest deposition.

(17)

(12)

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)

It is assumed that the duration of radioactive caesium
contamination following the Chernobyl accident of a
number of products originating from species living and
growing in forests and other natural and semi-natural
ecosystems essentially relates to the physical half-life of
that radionuclide which is some 30 years and that there-
fore no appreciable change as regards the radioactive
these products will be
caesium contamination of
observed in the next decades.

In recent years, data provided by some Member States to
the Commission has shown that high levels of radioac-
tive caesium continue to be found in wild game, wild
berries, wild mushrooms and carnivorous lake fish.

The placing on the market of edible wild products does
not necessarily proceed through the agro-industrial food
supply chains,
the national statutory monitoring and
checks could therefore be bypassed.

Public awareness of the continued contamination of wild
products tends to decline, even though the implication
of the contamination of these products for the health of
persons who consume large quantities of such products
from affected regions cannot be neglected.

The implication of the contamination of wild products
for the health of the general public is very low, and there
is therefore no need for more binding requirements to
be adopted.

Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parlia-
ment and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying
down the general principles and requirements of food
law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority
and laying down procedures in matters of food safety (1)
has set up a system for the rapid exchange of informa-
tion. It is necessary to use that system for exchanging
information between the Member States on recorded
cases of exceedance of the maximum permitted levels,

HEREBY RECOMMENDS:

1. For the purpose of protecting the health of the consumer,
Member States should take appropriate steps to ensure that
the maximum permitted levels in terms of caesium-134 and
caesium-137 referred to in Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No
737/90 are respected in the Community for the placing on
the market of wild game, wild berries, wild mushrooms and
carnivorous lake fish.

2. Member States should inform the population,

in regions
where there is a potential for such products to exceed the
maximum permitted levels, of the health risk involved.

3. Member States should inform the Commission and each
other of recorded cases of such products placed on the
Community market exceeding the maximum permitted
levels through the Community Rapid Alert System laid
down in Regulation (EC) 178/2002.

4. Member States should inform the Commission and the other
the action taken in response to this

Member States of
recommendation.

Done at Brussels, 14 April 2003.

For the Commission

Margot WALLSTRÖM

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 31, 1.2.2002, p. 1.