Food and water poisoned by Japanese nuclear leak 75 miles away (Mirror UK)

[jpak]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/03/20/food-and-water-poisoned-by-japanese-nuclear-leak-as-expert-warns-more-could-die-than-in-chernobyl-115875-23001856/

Food and water poisoned by Japanese nuclear leak as expert warns more could die than in Chernobyl

The crisis in Japan deepened yesterday as food and water were found to be poisoned with lethal radiation, raising the threat of mass food shortages.

Crops up to 75 miles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant were found to be unsafe to eat, and tap water in greater Tokyo – home to 30 million people – has also been contaminated by fall-out.

<snip>

Yesterday an earthquake measuring 6.2 struck near the crippled power plant, causing further damage and hampering efforts to restore electricity in the hope of restarting the cooling systems which could avert nuclear disaster.

One expert predicted that the death toll in the years ahead could top the 500,000 attributed to the Chernobyl accident of 1986 and warned that panicked repair attempts could lead to an even greater disaster. John Large, a British nuc lear engineer, said: “The Japanese don’t know how to deal with it. They’re ad-libbing.

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[ClarkUSA]

1. If one ate a kilo of contaminated spinach every day for a year, it'd be only 20% of a CAT scan.

That's what I read via an AP story headline on Yahoo! this morning.

[jpak]

2. There is a reason why there are limits to the rad-contamination of food and water

can you hazard a guess?

[ClarkUSA]

5. The levels of contamination present are nowhere near those limits, as I've noted.

Granted, none is better than a miniscule amount but there is no need to drum up unreasonable fears. Put out the facts and let people decide for themselves.

[flamingdem]

8. What is the safe limit for cesium-137 in the water, if you drink it

don't you think that is risky?

[ClarkUSA]

11. I don't know but the EPA says we all have some in our bodies due to cold war nuclear detonations.

The Environmental Protection Agency says that everyone in the United States is exposed to very small amounts of cesium-137 in soil and water because of atmospheric fallout from the nuclear detonations of the cold war.

The agency says that very high exposures can result in serious burns and even death, but that such cases are extremely rare. Once dispersed in the environment, it says, cesium-137 “is impossible to avoid.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/science/13radiation.html

Of course, radiation tainted food or water is "bad" for you but I wonder what water source in the world is not contaminated with cesium-137 after Chernobyl and all the cold war detonations of the 50's and 60's.

[flamingdem]

16. In a strange way that makes me feel better!

At least it's not like plutonium where supposedly one molecule will do you in.

We practically have immunity! Kind of.

[jpak]

4. Those levels are harmful to children

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-fg-japan-quake-main-20110320,0,5605102.story

<snip>

The amount of radiation found in the milk, if consumed for a year, is equivalent to levels found in one CT scan. The spinach contamination is equal to one-fifth the radioactivity in a CAT scan. And those levels could be harmful to children, said Braunstein of Cedars-Sinai.

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[ClarkUSA]

6. Interesting. How many kids in the US have CAT scans due to concussions or other illnesses, I wonder?

Thousands, I'll bet. Multiple ones per annum in some cases.

A relative of mine got a Grade 2 concussion during a Pop Warner football game and the ER doctor offered to put him through a CAT scan because that is the only way they could diagnose whether there was a brain bleed or not. His parents declined, but there are many who do not.

It's clear that children will not be allowed to drink milk or eat meat from cows from the Fukushima region. That's a no-brainer. It's up to the Japanese government and the people of Japan what to do in the end.

[jpak]

7. not millions

yup

[FBaggins]

10. But how many of them will drink this water at this level every day for a year?

None.

[jpak]

13. Yeah - that's why the Japanese govt is contemplating an embargo of food from Fukushima

happy-talk fail

yup

[FBaggins]

14. Of course they are. Wouldn't you?

As I said before, there's a level that is actually dangerous... and then there's the level you set WAY below that line to remove any concern at all and, well, because you can.

Didn't the Japanese stop importing beef from the US back a decade or so ago when there was a mild mad cow scare? The risk was pretty much zero, and we continued to eat beef here in the U.S., but they took the "better safe than sorry" route.

In an environment where hundreds of thousands of Japanese can't GET safe drinking water, I'm really not going to sweat something that is otherwise clean but adds enough radiation that if I drink it all year I've added one x-ray of exposure. It's the least of their problems right now.

And as I said. IF it stays elevated, there are things they can do to fix that.


On edit -

The numbers around Chernobyl in the milk were over 100 times as high that first year all over the place. This is the single highest reading with lots of much lower ones.

So much for the "1/10th the amount of Chernobyl" BS, eh?

[flamingdem]

9. Cat scans can be a problem, but they are quick, what about

an ongoing exposure or ingestion / inhalation.

Those are the stats we need to know.

[flamingdem]

3. This article doesn't use the teensy weensy description

of course it makes sense that anything within the area of that smoke is laden with radioactivity, laden meaning unfit for human consumption.

They will play games with numbers since cancer won't get everyone, especially the elderly are not so impacted, and they need to avoid more panic and food shortages..

Oh. And it's still spewing.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. “The Japanese don’t know how to deal with it. They’re ad-libbing."

That is a terrifying thought.

Humans keep creating monsters they cannot control.
Is hubris a built in gene or something?

[girl gone mad]

15. I was brainstorming w/ a friend on long term options.

Containment at Fukushima may be more complicated than Chernobyl since the site is on an active fault line and subject to a corrosive ocean climate.

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Not to mention THREE reactors in trouble, versus just one.