(Fallon, Nev) Dairies dump milk on radiation threat (polonium-210)

[UpInArms]

Source: Associated Press

FALLON, Nev. - Two dairy farms have dumped milk after the discovery of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope in 25 nearby drinking water wells.

Officials from Sorensen's Dairy and Oasis Dairy said they will stop selling milk until it is tested for the isotope, polonium-210, by the Food and Drug Administration. Officials said there's no known health risk at this time.

A study released Friday by the U.S. Geological Survey found the radioactive isotope in 24 private wells and one public well around Fallon, about 60 miles east of Reno. Polonium-210 is known to cause cancer in humans.

All dairies around Fallon sell their milk to the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative, which in turn markets the milk to a dairy in Reno and plants in northern California.

Fallon farmer Bret Sorensen said he began dumping 6,000 gallons of milk Friday morning at the cooperative's request.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/dairies_contaminated_wells

[fed-up]

1. so glad I don't drink milk due to intolerance-ack-just read whole story...

Dr. Anette Rink, a supervisor at the Nevada Department of Agriculture, said she expects to have test results back from the FDA by Monday. Milk is not normally sampled for polonium-210 because the cows' bodies filter out most of the metal, Rink said.

Concentrations of polonium-210 found in the 25 wells ranged from less than 0.1 to 67.7 picocuries per liter. Thirteen had amounts greater than 15, which is the maximum allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency for public wells. The EPA does not regulate private wells.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian security agent, was killed in London last year with a dose of polonium-210 much larger than the amount detected in Fallon.

USGS researchers conducted the well tests as part of a University of Nevada, Reno, study investigating a possible link between groundwater contamination and 20 leukemia cases around Fallon since 1997. Health officials say about one leukemia case in five years would be expected

[Trillo]

2. Some of the exotic medical tests for pollution and pollutants,

should be included in our basic medical physical exams. Why they aren't already, when they've been available for (to my knowledge) at least 20 years, when we pay SO MUCH for healthcare, I would guess is due to corruption and various forms of psychological denial.

However, the area’s water was known to have exceeded federal standards for arsenic for years, according to an expert panel consisting of the state health officer, the director of the state health laboratory, the state epidemiologist, and other epidemiological, pediatric and cancer experts from across the country. The group was empaneled to look into the Fallon cluster in conjunction with the CDC. In fact, the town’s municipal water had the highest levels of arsenic in the nation at 100 parts per billion, and some domestic wells had levels as high as 683 parts per billion, according to samples taken by investigators. The Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level for arsenic is now just 10 parts per billion, which is down from 50 parts per billion prior to 2006. In Fallon’s defense, the type of arsenic in the city’s water was believed for many years to be a non-toxic form of the chemical. However, it is known now that all arsenic is toxic.

Much more to read at:
http://www.unr.edu/nevadanews/detail.aspx?id=2122

Polonium is mentioned, and so is Harry Reid. The kids that get leukemia, even though often recovered, don't have much physical stamina.

Once humans start making it, whatever "it" is, it seems to disperse throughout our environment.

[formercia]

6. Polonium 210 has a half-life of 138.39 days

Polonium-210 is a low-melting, fairly volatile metal, 50% of which is vaporized in air in 45 hours at 55 deg.C. It is an alpha emitter with a half-life of 138.39 days. A milligram emits as many alpha particles as 5 g of radium.

It is also used in Nuclear weapons to generate Neutrons.

[progressoid]

3. Mmmm...polonium 210

[RufusTFirefly]

4. Naturally occurring?

I don't suppose the nearby, naturally occurring Naval Air Station had anything to do with it. Nah. Probably not.

Besides, I prefer polonium sushi.

[Sirveri]

10. You need a nuclear reactor to make it.

So it's pretty doubtful that the NAS would have one. Army tried that concept with SL-1 back in the 60's, it really didn't work out so well. Unless they store a lot of nuclear bombs there, plutonium based weapons could create miniscule ammounts of the stuff. Pu239 likes to spontaneously fission, so that could activate some of the surrounding materials. Bi209 + N => Bi210, then Bi210 + T1/2 => Po210 + B-.

Stuff could also in theory be getting churned up from inside the earth itself, which is kept hot primarily by nuclear reactions, those reactions could be generating Po210 which is making its way to the water table from below.

Or some guy could have bought this shit on the Russian black market and then dumped it into the water supply. But why Fallon? Why not that big open resovoir out by San Pablo CA (right off San Pablo Dam Rd), or the other big resovoir out in San Bruno CA? Or any of the other innumerable big open resovoirs that are probably all over the country?

[KamaAina]

5. Got polonium-210?

:P

[donkeyotay]

7. Weird. When that Russian guy was poisoned in London

they said polonium-210 was anthing but natural. They used it as evidence that Putin must be involved because the only source would be a nuclear state. Now it's in milk. Go figure.

[Xithras]

8. The presence doesn't matter as much as the amount making it into the food

Here in central California, for instance, we have a serious and unfixable problem with uranium in our well water. The tourist brochures don't mention this, but all of those pretty granite faces that make Yosemite such a memorable place to visit are a bit radioactive. Over millions of years, rivers have washed that granite down in the northern San Joaquin valley where it's become part of the strata beneath our feet. Pretty much every well between Bakersfield and Stockton has some detectable level of Uranium, and it isn't something that can be filtered easily. This area ALSO happens to be a huge agricultural center, and a large number of farms and dairies irrigate using pumped well water. Test after test has shown that the uranium (and other contaminants) don't readily absorb into milk and crops. If you were to test really, really closely you MIGHT be able to detect some amount of residual radiation in food exported from the area, but it's doubtful.

Did I mention that central California has some of the highest cancer rates in tha nation? It's fashionable to blame smog as the culprit, but my money is on the water.

[Sirveri]

9. If the Uranium doesn't absorb into food there is no worry.

It can't be radioactive unless it has radioactive materials (contamination) in it. So unless Uranium gets into it somehow it won't be radioactive. Uranium itself is bad due to its status as a heavy metal. It's also a weak alpha emitter if I remember correctly. Either way it doesn't really matter, there is radiation in everything, it's not really worth being afraid unless you're taking some fairly large doses.

[Demeter]

11. Another Good Reason To Get Out of California

[formercia]

12. Nuclear waste contamination?

I find it interesting that they found Polonium at all. It is present naturally in Uranium ores but in such minute quantities that the other radioactive elements present would pose a much greater health risk.

My question is if any facilities that handle nuclear materials are located near the same water table that provided the water for those wells.

Polonium was used in many of the early US nuclear weapons as part of a Neutron source to aid in the initiation of the chain reaction. If processing waste or old components had been disposed of improperly and the Polonium had migrated into the water table, it might explain the contamination.