...or the air... Most people look at a map and think the wind in Washington State blows a west wind (to the east); that is seasonal & subject to pressure ridges, mostly due to the Rockies.
Frequently, an east wind blows to the west in this area, almost akin to the ubiquitous Santa Ana winds in CA. The Columbia Gorge was hit with this pretty hard the past few weeks.
Published in 1972 by Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass:
It was not our physics and technology that had been inadequate, but our knowledge of biological systems and their enormous ability to concentrate toxic agents. Just as in the case of DDT, it was not the amount distributed throughout the environment that was so serious. It was the selective concentration in the food chain and then in the newly forming organs of the rapidly developing young embryo. Since all higher animals, including man, must pass through this critically sensitive phase, it was clear that, unless the problem was widely recognized and acted upon, man could extinguish himself and all other animals, not through the effect of radiation on the adult, but through the effect on the weakest link in the chain of life -- the unborn and the very young.(disclaimer: I am not anti-nuke, just anti-stupid. Thorium? The anti-coal regulations of this administration will place more burden on our dated nuclear infrastructure. Roll the dice...)