Low levels of radiation found in US milk

[IScreamSundays]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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."

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JAPAN_EARTHQUAKE_US_MILK?SITE=KMOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[C_U_L8R]

2. but federal officials assured consumers not to worry.

Don't worry??? Don't worry???
There is no such thing as good Iodine-131.
Seriously WTF !!!!!!!!
These people might get us seriously sick
with this 'don't worry be happy' bullshit.

[CoffeeCat]

16. Are they testing for cesium???

They aren't talking about this at all.

It's probably in the milk too, but is anyone testing for it and releasing the information?

They surely can't pull the old "Oh we're all exposed to cesium from time to time" baloney on that one.

[PearliePoo2]

3. Levels were expected to drop quickly? Says WHO??

did someone turn the spewing shit off and we're not aware of it?
fubar

[eggplant]

8. Radioactive Iodine has a VERY short half life.

8 days, if I remember correctly. It takes days for it to travel across the ocean and get into the milk supply. Leave it in your fridge for a few days and it'll be long gone.

Now the plutonium, on the other hand... that's going to be around for a very long time. But given how heavy it is, it'll mostly be killing people near the reactors. Sigh.

[truthisfreedom]

21. With a half-life of 8 days, about 2 months will give you a safety margin if you start at a deadly

level. Every time there is a fission event in Japan a new batch of this stuff is released, however, and we have no way of knowing how many more fission events there will be as they attempt to get the reactors under control.

[drokhole]

4. Call me crazy, but I don't find this statement comforting...

"A person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round-trip cross-country flight, watching television, and even from construction materials."

So we're supposed to be cool because other man-made shit zaps us with radiation that we otherwise wouldn't be exposed to? Fuck it, guess we might as well swallow it while we're at it. I'll have one glass of low-level radiation milk to go, please.

[CoffeeCat]

17. Yes but that radiaion is an EXTERNAL EMITTER...

I just read about this. Everyone should read this. http://projectpangaia.blogspot.com/2011/03/comparing-japans-radiation-release-to.html

Radiation that we are exposed to, such as by watching television or on an airline flight--is radiation that
is emitted externally. Meaning, it hits us externally.

The iodine-131 that is radioactive from Japan, and is in the milk--is an INTERNAL EMITTER. This stuff travels
around in your body until it finally rests in your thyroid or in other organs. And it does cause cancer.

The media is misinforming us with all of this chatter, "Don't worry, you get more radiation from walking
by your microwave!".

These are not the same things!

We need to stop bantering about this disinformation. We need to prepare. If that stuff is in the milk, people
should not be drinking it!

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Even better, EPA wants to INCREASE the acceptable levels of radiation:

The EPA is preparing to dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after “radiological incidents,” according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

What is termed a guidance that EPA is considering - as opposed to a regulation - does not require public airing before it’s decided upon.

snip:

Drinking water, for example, would have a huge increase in allowable public exposure to radioactivity, the group says, that would include:

A nearly 1000-fold increase in strontium-90

A 3000 to 100,000-fold hike for iodine-131

An almost 25,000 rise for nickel-63

The new radiation guidance would also allow long-term cleanup standards thousands of times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted, permitting doses to the public that EPA itself estimates would cause a cancer in as much as every fourth person exposed, the group says.

Source: this DU thread..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x773522

[cynzke]

11. Fourth Person Exposed.

One in four exposed likely to develop cancer. EPA members and their loved ones could never be that fourth person, right?

[Tumbulu]

6. Thanks Nadin for bringing this up weeks ago (nt)

[WheelWalker]

7. Yes, thank you.

[fascisthunter]

19. She sure did...

... hope she comes back.

[Snoutport]

22. my posts about the nuclear stuff has generated more nasty comments than everything else combined

it is kind of shocking how many people are rabid about any comments that make nuclear look bad.

[fascisthunter]

23. that's because there is an agenda, and the agenda is to hide the truth

if it were all a logical discussion it would never become personal. Just watch those siding with nukes, then wait for any other issue to arise... you'll see a pattern, and it isn't left wing.

[trud]

24. what we're rabid about

is misinformation and completely uninformed posts.

People post here, running around like Chicken Little, about amounts of radiation equal to background radiation. Or they go, the Japanese are doomed for generations, about tiny amounts with a half life of eight days. Or they carry on about plutonium which, it is clear from its isotope composition, is mostly the residue of China's atmospheric bomb tests in the 80s. Every "news" report is taken as gospel without any attempt to verify it or even see if it makes sense in itself. We all know how accurate the media are, of course.

I am, personally, shocked at the level of ignorance and hysteria displayed on this topic. It is equaled only by the brainlessness of birthers, who make me scratch my head and say, do these people have any functioning brain cells?

I expected a lot better of Democrats, whom I always assumed were smarter than Republicans, and so am quite disillusioned. If this is the general level of intelligence in the US, we really are doomed as a society.

You want the most dangerous energy source in terms of the damage its done to people and the planet? Coal, then oil.

[SydNav]

9. Just a quick question....

"A person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round-trip cross-country flight'


Do you get the same amount of radiation if you fly on the inside of the plane vs wing-walking from coast to coast?

[Paradoxical]

10. This is why I'm happy that I only drink soy milk.

Tastes better anyways.

[SpiralHawk]

14. Most all soy is genetically engineered now. Radiation will precipitate upon it.

It's all connected...

[Ignis]

18. ...And most of that GE soy is fed to animals or converted to oil.

[grahamhgreen]

12. "Radiation is all around us in our daily lives". HorseCrap.

They are intentionally trying to mislead.

Sure radiation is around us, BUT NOT INSIDE US!

Internal emitters are far more poisonous that your TV.


There Are NO Background Levels of Radioactive Caesium or Iodine.

[Little Star]

13. DU told me that it would not travel........

in the air all the way to our west coast. So who was the knowledgeable one and who were the ones with their head in the sand????? It did make it here and pretty darn fast too!

[Ratty]

15. Maybe the price of milk will go down for awhile

My milk bill is always astronomical.

[fascisthunter]

20. Nadin was right....