15 states have reported radioisotopes from Japan

[Generic Other]

At least 15 states have reported radioisotopes from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in air or water or both. No states have recommended that residents take potassium iodide, a salt that protects the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine.

Iodine-131 has been found in eastern states from Florida to Massachusetts as well as in western states like Oregon, Colorado, and California, according to sensors and officials in those states.

None of the levels poses a risk to public health, they said.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/30/radiation.us/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

[BillyJack]

1. How does that radiation get to the eastern states without passing over the whole of the US first?

I don't understand how that could be.

Can someone explain?

:shrug:

TIA

edited to add the word "first" to be more clear.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Dutch Harbor in Alaska

showed the highest radiation of any town in America. Allegedly it's not a dangerous level. :shrug:

http://www.adn.com/2011/03/29/1781982/dtuch-harbor-monitor-registers.html

During the worst week of the Japanese nuclear crisis, the EPA's radiation monitor in Dutch Harbor recorded the highest levels of radioactive iodine fallout in the United States among reporting stations, the agency said.

Despite the relatively high levels in the Aleutian Island community on March 19 and 20, state and federal health officials continued to say Tuesday that the amounts of radioactive byproducts were way too small to pose a health risk.

"It may be high relative to the other readings, but it is inconsequential," said Bernd Jilly, director of the state's health lab in Anchorage.

The EPA report, issued Monday, is based upon laboratory analyses of filters and charcoal canisters on the monitors, and only a handful of stations were reported among more than 100 in its network.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/03/29/1781982/dtuch-harbor-monitor-registers.html#ixzz1I9EboRnv

[Generic Other]

3. I hear one sperm is "inconsequential" too

but it's all that it takes!

No one has the right to decide if deadly poisons are inconsequential to us. I would certainly say they are not inconsequential to me!

I wonder if our government is just reading old Japanese TEPCO press releases to pacify us.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Maybe this will help

It's from a private research institute called the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. The director was in an NHK interview that was posted a few days ago on DU.

General information and links:
http://www.rerf.or.jp/index_e.html

Specific information about the effects from Fukushima:
http://www.rerf.or.jp/fukushima_qae.pdf

[Generic Other]

5. Really helpful source

Scary reading. Especially passages like this:

"...please note that there are no health effects from exposure to the aforementioned level of radiation unless the exposure continues for a prolonged time."

[aquart]

7. But that's the problem, isn't it? It's going to continue.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. "The aforementioned level of radiation" is 1,000 microsieverts,

that is, 1 millisievert, per hour. The dose that I and your relatives in the Tsukuba/Tsuchiura area, 100 miles (sometimes) downwind from the reactors are getting, is currently averaging about 0.2 microsieverts per hour. In other words, we who are 100 miles south of the reactors are currently receiving about 1/5000 of 1 millisievert per hour.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Most people don't seem to understand the concept of compounded risk.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. Perhaps you would like to explain it

Maybe there is something about "compounded risk" that I am not understanding...

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. It's like when people try to sell you something you know you can't afford.

The sales person will break it down to the lowest denominator. They'll say, it will only cost you pennies a day. So you buy the damn thing. The next day, another sales person comes and uses the same rationale. You buy that item too. And this patten continues. Each salesman, alone, has presented the facts accurately for the item they are selling. However, if you keep agreeing to buy merchandise based on this reasoning, you won't make it to the year without going broke.

Now, Imagine the salesperson is actually our present day government which is in cahoots with business, and the items are as important to you as the air to breath and the food to eat. That's compounded risk.

[Skip Intro]

6. SC and NC reported it in the air. Testing soil and water, last I heard.

I'm sure it's lighter here than the west coast. Still, I'm wondering. If cloud of ra gas went into the air, wouldn't the first instances of record be weak, with density increasing on a level equivalent with the contamination? Like a cloud, the outer edges thin and weak, the more severe stuff yet on the way? Wouldn't that be the case?

[Selatius]

8. It is the case, assuming they do not contain the meltdown in a timely manner.

There will be more radiation on the way, I fear.

[Name removed]

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