Radiation increases continue across US

[greenman3610]

Run time: 14:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfRGVnQWdns   Posted on YouTube: April 09, 2011 By YouTube Member: leakspinner Views on YouTube: 1014   Posted on DU: April 11, 2011 By DU Member: greenman3610 Views on DU: 1549

 
The video commentator is talking about this article in, of all places, Forbes, discussing the continued creep in radiation
levels around the US.
Check me if I'm wrong, but a lot of the assumptions about what level is "safe" kind of assume that the
exposure won't go on for months, and years - especially for short lived isotopes like iodine 131. We are looking at an event that is apparently still producing
new supplies of radioactive material due to continuing criticality at the site, and could easily go on
for years, if not decades.

Below, the graph he's talking about of radiation levels heading off the chart at unit 1.


the Forbes blog is here:
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/09/radiation-detected-in-drinking-water-in-13-more-us-cities-cesium-137-in-vermont-milk/


The Philadelphia sample is below the EPA’s maximum contaminant level (MCL) for iodine-131, but the Little Rock sample is almost three times higher.

Nonetheless, the EPA does not consider the milk dangerous because the MCL is set for long-term exposure, and the iodine-131 from Japan’s Fukushima-Daichi nuclear accident is expected to be temporary and deteriorate rapidly.

The EPA’s MCL for iodine-131 is 3 picoCuries per liter.

The Little Rock milk sample contained 8.9 picoCuries per liter. It was collected on March 30.

Three drinking water samples collected in Philadelphia on April 4 contained Iodine-131, according to Saturday’s data release:

A sample from the city’s Queen Lane Treatment Plant showed 2.2 picoCuries per liter—the highest concentration in EPA’s drinking water data so far.
Water collected at the Belmont Treatment Plant contained 1.3 picocuries, and
Water collected at the Baxter Treatment Plant contained 0.46 picocuries.

--------

any experts out there, I'd appreciate a primer on sieverts, vs curies, vs becquerels, vs rads, vs rems, and all these measurements we are hearing.

[franzia99]

1. Iodine 131 found in Berkeley rain water 181 times the permissible level for drinking water

http://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-rainwater-radiation-181-times-above-us-drinking-water-standard-2011-4

[franzia99]

2. I live in Hawaii. A lot of people I know have been getting sick in the past week.

A lot have had symptoms of the stomach flu (nausea and vomiting). I had the stomach flu myself and I rarely ever get this. I definitely don't want to be paranoid or alarmist or anything and this could very well just be a virus that's going around. However, there seems to be a lack of good information on radiation levels here, contamination in drinking water, food, milk, and it's making people worry. I just want detailed information from independent sources with no stake in this or PR concern. Being in Hawaii I know that if anyone in the US suffers from this it's likely to be us.

[greenman3610]

4. it's the lack of info that is most alarming

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. same here in NY...everyone is getting sick. I warned them all to stay out of the rain in.....

in the Catskill Mountians since March 18th

every time it rains it rains Fukushima

[onestepforward]

3. There is some good discussion about the measurements here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x571745

Hope this helps.