Japan Cites Radiation in Milk, Spinach Near Nuclear Plant [low levels]

FoxNews.com ^ | March 19, 2011 | AP

[topher]

...

Edano said the amount of radiation detected in the milk would as much as one CT scan if consumed continually for a year while for spinach [if consumed for a year] it would be a fifth of one CT scan. A CT scan is a compressed series of X-rays used for medical tests.

Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself.

[topher]

A CT scan is in the range of milli grays / milli Sv's.

So I guess if one drinks 100 gallons of milk in a year, then that would be 12800 ounces.

That puts this in the range of hundreds nano grays /Sv's per ounce of milk.

I am not sure what is their basis for the amount of milk that one would drink in a year...

[topher]

You have understand the various units for radiation exposure.

If one goes to the beach every weekend and gets 4 or 5 hours of sun on both Saturday and Sunday, they may be exposed to the risk of skin cancer.

This sun exposure would probably be a greater cancer risk than drinking this milk for 10-20 years.

Unless you think you can get cancer from having 10-20 CT scans...

[Slings and Arrows]

Don’t tell nadinbrzezinski!

[AwesomePossum]

They are very fortunate that the wind, for the most part, has been blowing out to sea.........

:}

[SF_Redux]

with no elctricity for lights, it be right handy to have food glow so you can see it to eat it

[SF_Redux]

just read on fox the wind has changed, not a good direction either

[DB]

If the food has radioactive contamination on it, it depends what that contamination is and if it washes off or is in the food.

Radioactive iodine for example is absorbed in the body and collects in the thyroid. It isn’t readily passed through the body (unless you take iodide tablets).

So saying that radioactive milk is like and CT scan or whatever is comparing apples to oranges...

Being exposed to radioactive radiation is not the same thing as being contaminated with radioactive material, particularly if you inhale or ingest the contaminant.

[Stepan12]

Chicken Little -- the sky is falling

[Sooth2222]

"They are very fortunate that the wind, for the most part, has been blowing out to sea........."

Sushi-grade Atlantic salmon should command a price premium....

[Erik Latranyi]

This is insane fear-mongering that any sane conservative should reject.

[MomwithHope]

I think Taco Bell must have a marketing nightmare on their hands, lots of new commercials for their “Pacific Shrimp” tacos and burritos. OOPS

[Freddd]

Reportedly in the water too, in Tokyo.

But it can’t be a risk to anyone, it’s not like people need to drink water for long periods, I’m sure some freepers will tell us.

And it’s never more than an ct scan or an xray in Japan contaminating the surroundings, anyone else noticing this?

Believing it?

[Stepan12]

This board is being flooded with luddites.

The lib/commie pinup girl, Rachel Maddow, showing she understands nothing about hormesis when she tries to smear a GOP rocket scientist link here. If Maddow's ignorance regarding science were not so frightening, it would be funny. The same goes for the luddites here!

Environmentalists are watermelon Marxists: green on the outside and red on the inside.

[Stepan12]

Believing it?

Believe this, pal!

Fun facts:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Seven hundred thousand shipyard workers servicing nuclear reactors on Navy vessels had a cancer rate 25 percent lowe than workers with no work exposure.

Studies have shown that survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are livinglonger than Japanese wo were nowhere near the blasts in 1945.

The EPA spent millions on radon abatement, but it turned out that more radon equated fewer instances of lung cancer.1

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 1. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science pp 39

The environmentalists are watermelon Marxists: green on the outside and red on the inside.

[mewykwistmas]

Really? Low levels?

"Japan said radiation levels in spinach and milk from farms near its tsunami-crippled nuclear complex exceeded government safety limits, as emergency teams scrambled Saturday to restore power to the plant so it could cool dangerously overheated fuel.

The food was taken from farms as far as 65 miles (100 kilometers) from the stricken plants, suggesting a wide area of nuclear contamination."

[Freddd]

No pal, I don’t believe it.

[dynoman]

I can' believe how irrational and out of perspective some of the media coverage has been. For instance if any want to compare Chernobyl’s radiation to Fukushima Daiichi there is really nothing even close to bad enough at Fukushima Daiichi to compare to, not even the spent fuel pools let alone the reactors themselves. Chernobyl’s *reactor* had less protection than any of the spent fuel pools in Fukushima Daiichi, even before it blew up. The fact that it blew up proves that point. The operating standards were worlds apart. All that is why Chernobyl at seven seconds was many multiples worse than Fukushima Daiichi at seven days.

Think about it; even a 9.x earthquake, tsunami, and many aftershocks couldn’t damage Fukushima Daiichi enough to where it was anywhere close to a fraction of Chernobyl. In stark contrast Chernobyl blew up all by itself, no earthquake or tsaunmi needed. Fukushima Daiichi stands as a great testament to western nuclear powerplant design and operating standards, very impressive difference in my opinion.

I wonder if there will be even one radiation fatality in the next few months from Fukushima Daiichi. I read about one worker being exposed enough to require hospitalization, and the dose was a tiny fraction of what it would have been at Chernobyl.

---

Here’s some perspective on the current radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi;

First from -> http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031905-e.html

“From now on, if the measured figure fluctuates and goes above and below 500 micro Sv/h”

and

” - The radiation exposure of 1 TEPCO employee, who was working inside the reactor building, exceeded 100mSv and he was transported to the hospital.”

For perspective on 500 m/sv read this about radiation exposure to a medical equipment operator; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15122474

For perspective on 100 m/sv read this about radiation exposure with (166)Ho ferric hydroxide treatment; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14668958

At that second link note that the exposure to others the patient comes in contact when they go home is listed as 118 m/Sv, which is slightly more than the TEPCO worker’s exposure.

So there's one worker at Fukushima with a 100 m/sv exposure.

In morning hours after Chernobyl 134 workers received an exposure of 0.8-16 Gy which is 800-16000 m/sv ( 1Gy = 1Sv, 1Sv = 1000 m/Sv)

What this means is 134 workers in the first few hours at Chernobyl recieved 800m/Sv-16000m/sv. That stands in very stark contrast to the one Fukushima worker who recieved 100 m/sv.

For more perspective on radiation exposure; Symptom Benchmarks and Dose Examples

---

If any want to monitor the current and actual radiation levels across Japan check this link; http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/saigaijohou/syousai/1303726.htm

[goat granny]

The headline is a real laugh....In the 1960's DDT was in womens breast milk (test show) and that was used as a reason to ban DDT along with it killing birds by making their egg shells thin and chicks couldn't grow and hatch out.. The Silent Spring (I think that was Rachael Carsons book title) has killed millions every year because DDT kills mosquito's that carry Malaria...It was almost wiped out world wide when most governments banned it cause everyone feared its use...

In the city of Detroit back in the 40's, the city would spray monthly with DDT to kill mosquito's and it was fun for the kids to run into the spray...I think it made me healthy. I have been a smoker for over 50 years and still haven't so much as a cough. Might have been all that DDT I was exposed to as a kid...

[topher]

That is why I excerpted only the two paragraphs I did.

The rest of the article would produce fear.

At least saying if you drink the milk for a year, the level of radiation is like one CT scan does not sound bad.

[topher]

I agree. I tried to post this article in such a way as to not produce fear -- such as omitting a lot of non-sense paragraphs.

I used FoxNews comparison on the radiation -- just for the reason that it sounds better than having one CT scan is like drinking this milk for a year.

Admittedly, a CT SCAN will only affect one body part.

Another, as mentioned, radioactive Iodine is only POTENTIALLY harmful to the thyroid gland.

This is prevented by the Potassium Iodine tablets, which explains the absurd panic buying of these tablets.