Low levels of radiation found in US milk

[MNeagle]

Low levels of radiation found in US milk


Very low levels of radiation turned up in a sample of milk from Washington state, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, but federal officials assured consumers not to worry.

The FDA said such findings were to be expected in the coming days because of the nuclear crisis in Japan, and that the levels were expected to drop relatively quickly.

Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex began leaking radiation after it was damaged by a devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.

Results from a March 25 milk sample taken from Spokane, Wash., showed levels of radioactive Iodine-131 that were still 5,000 times below levels of concern set by the FDA, including levels set for infants and children.

"Radiation is all around us in our daily lives, and these findings are a miniscule amount compared to what people experience every day," said Patricia Hansen, senior scientist.at the FDA. "A person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round-trip cross-country flight, watching television, and even from construction materials."

EPA said it was increasing the level of nationwide monitoring of milk, precipitation and drinking water.

Spokane, a city of 208,000 residents, is located more than 300 miles east of the Pacific coast. Kim Papich, spokeswoman for the Spokane Regional Health District, said the agency was aware of the EPA report and preparing to issue a statement to residents.

"This is not a major health concern," Papich said.

The United States had already halted imports of dairy products and produce from the affected area of Japan. Other foods imported from Japan, including seafood, were still being sold to the public but screened first for radiation.

Japanese foods make up less than 4 percent of all U.S. imports. The FDA has said it expected no risk to the U.S. food supply from radiation.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/30/state/n145310D86.DTL&tsp=1

[Cobalt]

<snip>
Results from a March 25 milk sample taken from Spokane, Wash., showed levels of radioactive Iodine-131 that were still 5,000 times below levels of concern set by the FDA, including levels set for infants and children.

Either the levels for concern are extremely high to begin with or the equipment they use to test must be some of the best equipment made and I doubt it is the second option.

5000 times under the level of concern, yeah right :oo-->

[mightymanx]

So the question really should be:

Is this more than the "normal" low levels of radation that milk contains?

[sirgonzo420]

I guess milk REALLY does your body good now... seeing as how the "news" says radiation is good for us!


:oo-->

[SLV^GLD]

At what point do they stop saying, "this is not a health concern"? Probably about the same time they stop referring to the recession in the past tense?

[SHTF2010]

So the question really should be:

Is this more than the "normal" low levels of radation that milk contains?



maybe the new " normal " will be a third ear growing on our shoulder

[mick silver]

i just order a case of dry milk .... just wait till the farmer can no longer sell is milk

[Jazkal]

Didn't the FDA just change what the 'normal' levels of radiation where, like just last week? I can't find the article, anyone else have it handy?

[vacuum]

So let me ask a question. How did it get into the milk? This whole incident has only been going on for about 3 weeks. For it to get into milk, that means cows must have eaten contaminated grass, were milked, it was pasteurized, bottled, and transported to market. The jetstream takes, what, 3 - 5 days to get from Japan to here? So the contamination they're reporting might have been from just the initial explosion, which was reported to have released very little radiation. This doesn't bode well...

[Sparky]

So let me ask a question. How did it get into the milk? This whole incident has only been going on for about 3 weeks. For it to get into milk, that means cows must have eaten contaminated grass, were milked, it was pasteurized, bottled, and transported to market. The jetstream takes, what, 3 - 5 days to get from Japan to here? So the contamination they're reporting might have been from just the initial explosion, which was reported to have released very little radiation. This doesn't bode well...


I was thinking about this too. It seems like too short of a time for that complete cycle of events to occur. Although I suppose the testing could have happened "right out of the cow", but is that what really went on?

There were low level amounts of radiation also reported in rainwater in Massachusetts, but they wouldn't say where or when the sample was taken. I guess I could understand the "where" part, because it would stigmatize a particular area prematurely. But considering the radiation needs to travel 12,000 miles to reach Massachusetts, shouldn't it have shown up similarly in multiple regional samples, and/or somewhere else in the 12,000 mile trip along the way? It seemed odd. It's tough getting at the truth.

[mick silver]

you slaves need to get back to work there nothing for you to see here :whip :whip :whip :whip :whip :whip :plll

[sirgonzo420]

guys it's NO BIG DEAL. just a little radioactive milk.

[Cobalt]

guys it's NO BIG DEAL. just a little radioactive milk.


It's part of the new energy saving plan, everyone can remove the light bulb in the fridge and just use the jug of milk to light it up, over the next 10 years the United States will save enough energy equal to 7 1/2 barrels of oil.

[sirgonzo420]

guys it's NO BIG DEAL. just a little radioactive milk.


It's part of the new energy saving plan, everyone can remove the light bulb in the fridge and just use the jug of milk to light it up, over the next 10 years the United States will save enough energy equal to 7 1/2 barrels of oil.


good thing I wasn't drinking any (radioactive) milk or it would've been shot out my nose!

[sirgonzo420]

Here's what the folks in the UC Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering have to say:

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling


3/30 (5:30pm): Our milk sampling results are now posted. The only isotope we have detected besides background is I-131, at 0.70 Becquerels per liter. This level is lower than our rain water measurements by a factor of approximately 10, while higher than our creek water measurements by a factor of 10. One would have to drink roughly 3,800 liters of milk to receive a radiation dose equivalent to a round-trip cross-country flight.

3/29 (11:35am): Our air results and rain water results have both been updated. The isotope amounts in both have leveled out, which means that we might not be observing a downward trend at this point. We are continuing these tests so that we can observe the eventual expected decline in activities.

3/28 (2:24pm): Latest Air and Water Results data/spectra is now posted. We note decreased levels from previous peaks. This could be due to a number of reasons to include the lack of rain in the past 48 hours to an actual lower amount of particles in the air. Note, this is not a trend unless we see a sustained reduction. We are heading into a period of high pressure in the Bay Area and the jet stream will shift away from our area and this may cause even lower readings. We continue to test run-off creek water, tap water, and milk.

3/27 (2:00pm): Strawberry Creek run off results posted. We do observe all signatures in the run off creek water, but the dilution is from ~2% for I-131 to 15% for Cs137. However, Cs137 and Te132 are just below minimum detectability for our system and the real dilution is most likely closer to 2-5%. Reservoir and tap water sampling begins next week. These activities are factors of 10 to 50 below rain water results.

3/26 (6:20pm): Rain water sample results posted for 3/24 - 3/25. I-131 and Te-132 activities are lower than previously observed (3.12 and 0.27 Bq/L resp.) while Cs137 remains near the high point at ~0.5 Bq/L.

3/26 (10:45am): Air sampling results posted for 3/22 - 3/24. We have observed correlated increasing trends in Cs-137 and I-131 with the water sampling results. Te-132 seems to have increased more in air than in the rain water. Full understanding of the these trends may not be understood for some time until we start to combine this data with other information. Levels remain extremely low, but we are maintaining a close watch on these trends.

3/26 (9:45am): Rain water results posted for the past few days. Delay was due to testing of new data analysis chain script that will make posting results more efficient. We have observed a sharp up-tick in Cs-137 levels from around 0.2 Bg/L to 0.55 Bq/L. I-131 had a sharp rise on 3/23 of I-131 concentration from 6 Bq/L to 20 Bq/L. I-131 levels returned to 6 Bq/L on 3/24. Reasons for the I-131 spike is still unknown. Te-132 and I-132 levels remain relatively constant.

3/24 (2:40pm): Our new air sampling results are now posted. These results should be considered preliminary because we are trying to learn more about the efficiency of our 0.3 micron HEPA filters for capturing the particles of interest (we have assumed 100% efficiency for our current calculations). We thank everyone for their patience as we worked to ensure we had the correct calibration for these measurements. According to our measurements, the exposure to the public is very low -- at the highest levels we measured, breathing the air for 2,000 years would increase one's radiation dose by the same amount received by taking a cross-country airplane flight.

[madscientist]

Here's what the folks in the UC Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering have to say:

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling


3/30 (5:30pm): Our milk sampling results are now posted. The only isotope we have detected besides background is I-131, at 0.70 Becquerels per liter. This level is lower than our rain water measurements by a factor of approximately 10, while higher than our creek water measurements by a factor of 10. One would have to drink roughly 3,800 liters of milk to receive a radiation dose equivalent to a round-trip cross-country flight.



It is speculative that drinking Radioiodine 131 is "equivalent" to natural background radiation.

Some of us believe, on scientific grounds, that the "safe" level of consumption of fission products is zero...and only zero.