The NY Times’ Moscow Journal reports that regular inspections for radioactivity are made on produce and meats. Moscow is 415 miles from the Chernobyl nuclear-power plant which blew a reactor in 1986. Inspectors seized 3,050 pounds of radioactive produce last year and expect a 10% increase in 2002. The problem arises not with farm-grown produce but with the wild goods harvested by folks looking to supplement their incomes by selling berries and mushrooms. Open-air produce markets have labs busy with inspectors checking goods. It’s now forest mushroom harvest time, but Cesium 137, easily absorbed by mushrooms, has a half-life of 30 years. Russians love their wild mushrooms, but they must remember that those grandmas selling produce on the street corners haven’t had their mushrooms probed with a spectrometer.