Radiation levels tail off in tests of milk and air (Hawaii)

[FBaggins]

Radiation levels in Hawaii from Japan’s nuclear crisis continue to fall, government monitoring shows. Milk tested at a dairy in Hilo on April 4 registered 24 picocuries per liter for cesium-134, 19 picocuries for cesium-137 and 18 picocuries for iodine-131, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Milk samples tested again on April 13 — the most recent data — showed 11 picocuries for cesium-134, 11 picocuries for cesium-137 and a “non-detect” level for iodine-131.

At either level the radiation posed no public health risk, state officials have said. “We considered it safe before, and I can’t even say it’s safer now, because we were safe to begin with,” said Jeff Eckerd, acting program manager of the state Health Department’s indoor and radiological health branch. “The numbers are coming down, so we’re good.”

Air monitoring on Kauai April 1-3 and on Oahu April 1-4 recorded non-detect levels for all isotopes tested. Honolulu rainwater was found to have 2.2 picocuries per liter for iodine-131 on April 7.
...snip...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “derived intervention level” — the point at which steps would be taken to safeguard the public — is 33,000 picocuries for the combined cesium isotopes and 4,700 picocuries for iodine-131. At those levels the sale of affected milk could be stopped. A separate standard is the EPA’s “maximum contaminant level” for radiation in water at 3 picocuries per liter. But that presumes a 70-year consumption of two liters a day with that level of radiation.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/hawaiinews/20110427_Radiation_levels_tail_off_in_tests_of_milk_and_air.html

[TheWraith]

1. I wonder if anyone's going to come out and eat a little crow for all the doomsday predictions.

I know, ridiculous.

[FBaggins]

2. Of course you're right

It's ridiculous.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Have we died yet?

It's the only hope to justify all that angst.

[wtmusic]

3. Not a whiff of this on media slut Arnie Gundersen's website

Must be an oversight.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. In fairness, he's concerned with the reactors themselves

which still have the potential for massive releases of radioactive material.

He's not really talking about downwind fallout issues. The 'leak' at Fukushima has been decreasing steadily, accordig to local monitoring, so this all makes sense.

[Buzz Clik]

6. True. However, Gunderson did release a video in which he interviewed a toxicologist...

... who declared that every atom of radioactivity is potentially lethal. It was the most irresponsible thing I have ever seen on this subject.

[FBaggins]

7. Actually... in fairness that's not quite true.

You're correct that it "all makes sense"... but think about why the levels are dropping. Those "whys" directly refute what he has claimed is going on inside the reactors/pools. Iodine levels are falling rapidly because of the short half-life combined with declining production... but this wouldn't be the case with recriticality (as just one example).

[progressoid]

8. If I drank that much milk I'd die...

...from gas.

[nilram]

11. +10 for the pic!

I can see milk doesn't agree with you...

[TheWraith]

9. And of course, here come people to blindly unrec actual science on the subject.

Can't let anyone know that the predictions of nuclear apocalypse were full of shit, of course.

[FBaggins]

10. They don't want it to be true.

They would prefer that others live with a health risk as long as their debate position isn't harmed.

[Nihil]

12. +1 (n/t)