[Related: Arkansas Hit with Nuclear Accident AND Major Oil Spill]
Nuclear apologists pretend that people are exposed to more radiation from bananas than from Fukushima.
But the EPA explains:
The human body is born with potassium-40 [the type of radiation found in bananas] in its tissues and it is the most common radionuclide in human tissues and in food. We evolved in the presence of potassium-40 and our bodies have well-developed repair mechanisms to respond to its effects. The concentration of potassium-40 in the human body is constant and not affected by concentrations in the environment.
Wikipedia notes:
The amount of potassium (and therefore of 40K) in the human body is fairly constant because of homeostatsis, so that any excess absorbed from food is quickly compensated by the elimination of an equal amount.
It follows that the additional radiation exposure due to eating a banana lasts only for a few hours after ingestion, namely the time it takes for the normal potassium contents of the body to be restored by the kidneys.
BoingBoing reports:
A lot of things you might not suspect of being radioactive are, including Brazil nuts, and your own body. And this fact is sometimes used to downplay the impact of exposure to radiation via medical treatments or accidental intake.
***
I contacted Geoff Meggitt—a retired health physicist, and former editor of the Journal of Radiological Protection—to find out more.
Meggitt worked for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and its later commercial offshoots for 25 years. He says there’s an enormous variation in the risks associated with swallowing the same amount of different radioactive materials—and even some difference between the same dose, of the same material, but in different chemical forms.
It all depends on two factors:
1) The physical characteristics of the radioactivity—i.e, What’s its half-life? Is the radiation emitted alpha, beta or gamma?
2) The way the the radioactivity travels around and is taken up by the body—i.e., How much is absorbed by the blood stream?
What tissues does this specific isotope tend to accumulate in?
The Potassium-40 in bananas is a particularly poor model isotope to use, Meggitt says, because the potassium content of our bodies seems to be under homeostatic control. When you eat a banana, your body’s level of Potassium-40 doesn’t increase. You just get rid of some excess Potassium-40. The net dose of a banana is zero.
And that’s the difference between a useful educational tool and propaganda. (And I say this as somebody who is emphatically not against nuclear energy.) Bananas aren’t really going to give anyone “a more realistic assessment of actual risk”, they’re just going to further distort the picture.
Most “Background Radiation” Didn’t Exist Before Nuclear Weapons Testing and Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear apologists also pretend that we get a higher exposure from background radiation (when we fly, for example) and or x-rays then we get from nuclear accidents.
In fact, there was exactly zero background radioactive cesium or iodine before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents started.
Wikipedia provides some details on the distribution of cesium-137 due to human activities:
Small amounts of caesium-134 and caesium-137 were released into the environment during nearly all nuclear weapon tests and some nuclear accidents, most notably the Chernobyl disaster.
***
Caesium-137 is unique in that it is totally anthropogenic. Unlike most other radioisotopes, caesium-137 is not produced from its non-radioactive isotope, but from uranium. It did not occur in nature before nuclear weapons testing began. By observing the characteristic gamma rays emitted by this isotope, it is possible to determine whether the contents of a given sealed container were made before or after the advent of atomic bomb explosions. This procedure has been used by researchers to check the authenticity of certain rare wines, most notably the purported “Jefferson bottles”.
As the EPA notes:
Cesium-133 is the only naturally occurring isotope and is non-radioactive; all other isotopes, including cesium-137, are produced by human activity.
Similarly, iodine-131 is not a naturally occurring isotope. As the Encyclopedia Britannica notes:
The only naturally occurring isotope of iodine is stable iodine-127. An exceptionally useful radioactive isotope is iodine-131…
(Fukushima has spewed much more radioactive cesium and iodine than Chernobyl. The amount of radioactive cesium released by Fukushima was some 20-30 times higher than initially admitted. Japanese experts say that Fukushima is currently releasing up to 93 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium into the ocean each day. And the cesium levels hitting the west coast of North America will keep increasing for several years. Fukushima is still spewing radiation into the environment, and the amount of radioactive fuel at Fukushima dwarfs Chernobyl.)
As such, the concept of “background radiation” is largely a misnomer. Most of the radiation we encounter today – especially the most dangerous types – did not even exist in nature before we started tinkering with nuclear weapons and reactors. In a sense, we are all guinea pigs.
Mixing Apples (External) and Oranges (Internal)
Moreover, radioactive particles which end up inside of our lungs or gastrointestinal track, as opposed to radiation which comes to us from outside of our skin are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation.
The National Research Council’s Committee to Assess the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program explains:
Radioactivity generates radiation by emitting particles. Radioactive materials outside the the body are called external emitters, and radioactive materials located within the body are called internal emitters.
Internal emitters are much more dangerous than external emitters. Specifically, one is only exposed to radiation as long as he or she is near the external emitter.
For example, when you get an x-ray, an external emitter is turned on for an instant, and then switched back off.
But internal emitters steadily and continuously emit radiation for as long as the particle remains radioactive, or until the person dies – whichever occurs first. As such, they are much more dangerous.
As the head of a Tokyo-area medical clinic – Dr. Junro Fuse, Internist and head of Kosugi Medical Clinic – said:
Risk from internal exposure is 200-600 times greater than risk from external exposure.
See this, this, this and this.
There are few natural high-dose internal emitters. Bananas, brazil nuts and some other foods contain radioactive potassium-40, but in extremely low doses. And – as explained above – our bodies have adapted to handle this type of radiation.
True, some parts of the country are at higher risk of exposure to naturally-occurring radium than others.
But the cesium which was scattered all over the place by above-ground nuclear tests and the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents has a much longer half life, and can easily contaminate food and water supplies. As the New York Times notes:
Over the long term, the big threat to human health is cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years.
At that rate of disintegration, John Emsley wrote in “Nature’s Building Blocks” (Oxford, 2001), “it takes over 200 years to reduce it to 1 percent of its former level.”
It is cesium-137 that still contaminates much of the land in Ukraine around the Chernobyl reactor.
***
Cesium-137 mixes easily with water and is chemically similar to potassium. It thus mimics how potassium gets metabolized in the body and can enter through many foods, including milk.
As the EPA notes in a discussion entitled ” What can I do to protect myself and my family from cesium-137?”:
Cesium-137 that is dispersed in the environment, like that from atmospheric testing, is impossible to avoid.
Radioactive iodine can also become a potent internal emitter. As the Times notes:
Iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days and is quite dangerous to human health. If absorbed through contaminated food, especially milk and milk products, it will accumulate in the thyroid and cause cancer.
(In addition to spewing massive amounts of radioactive iodine 131, Fukushima also pumped out huge amounts of radioactive iodine 129 – which has a half-life of 15.7 million years. Fukushima has also dumped up to 900 trillion becquerels of radioactive strontium-90 – which is a powerful internal emitter which mimics calcium and collects in our bones – into the ocean.).
The bottom line is that there is some naturally-occurring background radiation, which can – at times – pose a health hazard (especially in parts of the country with high levels of radioactive radon or radium).
But cesium-137 and radioactive iodine – the two main radioactive substances being spewed by the leaking Japanese nuclear plants – are not naturally-occurring substances, and can become powerful internal emitters which can cause tremendous damage to the health of people who are unfortunate enough to breathe in even a particle of the substances, or ingest them in food or water.
Unlike low-levels of radioactive potassium found in bananas – which our bodies have adapted to over many years – cesium-137 and iodine 131 are brand new, extremely dangerous substances.
And unlike naturally-occurring internal emitters like radon and radium – whose distribution is largely concentrated in certain areas of the country – radioactive cesium and iodine, as well as strontium and other dangerous radionuclides, are being distributed globally through weapons testing and nuclear accidents.
Cumulative and Synergistic Damage
A military briefing written by the U.S. Army for commanders in Iraq states:
Hazards from low level radiation are long-term, not acute effects… Every exposure increases risk of cancer.
(Military briefings for commanders often contain less propaganda than literature aimed at civilians, as the commanders have to know the basic facts to be able to assess risk to their soldiers.)
The briefing states that doses are cumulative: the more times someone is exposed, the greater the potential damage.
In addition, exposure to different radioactive particles may increase the damage. Specifically, the International Commissionon Radiological Protection notes:
It has been shown that in some cases a synergistic effect results when several organs of the body are irradiated simultaneously.
("Synergistic" means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.)
Because different radionuclides accumulate in different parts of the body - e.g. iodine in the thyroid, cesium in the reproductive organs, and strontium in the bones -the exposure to many types of radiation may be more dangerous than exposure just to one or two types.
As such, adding new radioactive compounds like cesium and iodine into the environment may cause synergistic damage to our health.
The Bottom Line
Even though the nuclear industry and government has been covering up the dangers of radiation ever since nuclear weapons were invented, there is overwhelming scientific evidence that even low levels of radiation can damage our health.
Postscript: Any environmentalist who thinks that nuclear power is necessary to reduce greenhouse gasses has fallen prey to false propaganda from the nuclear industry.
Actually I do have an Inspector. I may just try that but, of course, WTF can I do?
Great articles George. You're really on the ball with this. I worry about cancers related to radiation similar to what we saw after nuke tests years ago esp those tissues supersentitive to radiation. Watch for bone marrow cancers and thyroid cancers to soar in the next few years on the West Coast. My cousin was a radiologist who used to do alot of procedures close or even under that X-ray tube...died from leukemia at a young age, the doctor said from radiation effects.
Many are now calling the Fuku rad sickness 'Fukushima AIDS'. The radiation is killing our immune systems, and going forward all diseases will have an easier time killing us.
A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto
http://youtu.be/LLCF7vPanrY
Trinity test declassified footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcmxLVGd4wE (2:21)
Fukushema bananas is not trademarked yet i bet.
Thorough as always George, good to see that some people still care
Thanks GW for this great work.
What is pathetic, is in the face of this huge example of the nuklear beast gone wild and still spewing it's deadly load upon the planet from fukushima, there are so many reactors like this one in the US that are ticking time bombs. After a emp goes off, or maybe a solar CME happens to take out the grid, all bets are off. Anyone east of any of these reactors is toast. Look on this map and see where you live if you are in the US. Sadly, Europe is worse.
http://www.psr.org/resources/evacuation-zone-nuclear-reactors.html
Remember that the fallout from Richland, WA has contaminated everyone and everything east of it for a thousand miles, so the fifty mile radius is pretty much horsewash. If you are downwind, you will be contaminated.
When the emp happens, be it solar or man made, or any kind of power outage happens, you can say On the Beach. If you have not watched this movie in it's entirety and plainly seen the future the way things are headed, then one can only pray for those who consciously choose to remain ignorant and continue to play the games like there is some kind of future to spend those profits in. This is what the babylonians can not get. Either it is all of mankind united to save the planet, or divided and warring amongst the tribes will destroy all life on earth, and soon after, the planet herself.
On the Beach - Parts 1&2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxvx9gQ8k0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn7JAE5D39o
Live well in the last days of Pompeii....one day at a time.
Excellent flick. My hometown looks so different these days. Maybe it will be a return to mean.
http://enenews.com/residents-nuke-plant-shocked-scared-safety-evacuation...
Wonder when some quack will advocate for the health benefits of adding cesium-137 to my local municipal water supply?
Short common sense....
Bullish cockroaches.....
They want to add lithium so you don't speak up:
'Is lithium the next fluoride? Medication may be added to the water supply'
http://www.naturalnews.com/032669_lithium_water_supply.html
'Irish government urged to add lithium salts to water supply in suicide battle'
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-government-urged-to-add-lithium-salts-to-water-supply-in-suicide-battle-134895803.html
(Above article dated during the time the Irish were rioting over the destruction of their banking system by the EU)
"Fox News nonchalantly discusses the forced drugging of the masses."
http://current.com/entertainment/comedy/91703082_dr-on-adding-lithium-to-water-supply-very-interesting-concept.htm
On and on . . .
couldn't resist, so I clicked your "irish gov lithium" story,
uh yeah, nothing like admitting to gov't experimenting with human populations! how's it working out for ya Texas?
seriously, I'm not surprised, but. . . *shakes head*
and the Ian Curtis photo in the story. tacky.
I only drink pure grain alcohol
If you mix it with rainwater, it will now come with a whiff of Cs-137.
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/radon.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/202/4372/1045.short
actual science alert. When was the last time you checked for radon in your house? Do you live near coal fired power station?
Nuclear v. coal v. big oil?
No!
Decentralizing energy production and storage is the real solution for the environment … not building more centralized plants.
Decentralising would eliminate (just about) any risk of wars for energy too.
Hard to have a war if everyone is a single person.
(I mean that, if everyone is an individual, totally decentralized. Although, depopulation also helps avoid wars too, I suppose.)
Amen.
Wars aren't about energy... they are about power. Unfortunately, those will continue for as long as there are humans. Though, perhaps that won't be for much longer.
well George,
radon seeps out of the ground and into (horrors!) your drinking water all by itself. What is there to decentralize?
Radon is mostly an alpha emitter. If you breath it in, or ingest it in a solution, causes most damage any radiation can do.
Correct, and Radon is a real concern in some parts of the country.
I was talking about your reference to coal.
thank you. So let me get to the gist ofmy comment. There is plenty of natural radioactivity in the environment that we evolved with.
This is not to minimize the problem around Fukushima itself. Just to put it in perspective elsewhere, like here in the United States, even on the west coast.
Houses are tested for radon in my state every time they are sold. If it is present, the radon must be re-mediated. Which can be done fairly easily.
No re-mediating the nuclear power plant one state away.
So fatman, put this in perspective: fuck you.
so without swear words, some further perspectives with reading material:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose
http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/Cesium.pdf
http://ssfl.msfc.nasa.gov/documents/technical/Natural_Variations_of_Cesi...
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/12/20/researchers-...
etc, etc.
Again, not to minimize Chernobyl or Fukushima. Please avail yourself zero hedgers of some other sources to gain perspective.
Background radiation does not compare to hundreds of tons of aerosolized plutonium circling the globe, with every living thing breathing it daily.
Not to mention the thousands of tons of aerosolized uranium now worldwide, but most people will get my drift.
Take a Geiger counter to your car air filter. There's plenty in there, just like our lungs.
Great info George, appreciate your continuing articles on the subject of [ir]radiation. And also the related comments and discussion from a great, diverse group.
THERE IS NO SAFE DOSE of radiation - PERIOD
Like Madge said, Your soaking in it. No way to tell where a fish was caught, or where that fish went in its lifetime. Lethal range is going to be determined by a bell curve.
A lot of radioactive Japanese food stuffs, including fish, is being shipped overseas, relabeled for country of origin and sent worldwide.
No fish, rice, green tea, mushrooms, dairy or beef for me. No telling where it came from, or it's full of bio-magnified radiation. Mushrooms are the worst on the planet for radiation uptake. One radiation researcher said eliminating mushrooms can cut your food exposure down by 80%.
Thankfully-from engineer775-there’s a way to grow your own mushrooms so you can choose a safe spot to start.
Not Important, You and George should definitely get tinfoil hats. The sheilding might help you think better. I suppose it's more fun to spread your garbage information than to give out accurate data.
"Physics Professor Paolo Scampa announced March 23, 2011 that the four destroyed reactors at Fukushima, Japan was about 70 Billion Lethal Doses, finely divided. Professor Scampa used only official IAEA data (International Atomic Energy Agency.)
According to the US Census Bureau there are approximately 6 Billion 907 Million people on Earth today. The wrecked General Electric nuclear reactors contained enough radioactive, highly poisonous fuel to kill every person on Earth about 10 times. The poison is in the atmosphere and spreading all over the world from Japan in 9 to 10 days."
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2011/03/25/japan-nuclear-crisis-the-four-...
Nobody has ever tried to show that Dr. Scampa is wrong in his calculations. No one.
Don't eat Gomphidius glutinosus, Craterellus tubaeformis or
Laccaria amethystina!
But some types of food may reduce danger from radiation exposure.
I still say that the fallout from the banking crisis is worse than any fallout from a reactor. After all, it's these f...n banks that finance these nuclear power plants and its governments that insure them otherwise who would build these monsters.'
The Fuku radiation is killing all life on this planet, which we are now seeing in the sea life die off on both NA coasts. The human race is only a couple of rungs higher on the food chain ladder. Infant Mortality Rates have skyrocketed since 3/11, up 48% in Philidelphia alone:
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/fukushima-day-99-infant-...
What's worse, total extinction in 100 years, or having to rebuild our financial systems?
I'll be the first to say either is a bitch. Watch 'The Road' to see where we're all headed.
Please - what is the bottom line for min / max - Cesium 137 absorption by Tuna in the Pacific as the move from west to east to west to east in their circular migration - multiple times as the grow to harvest size
for a:
5 oz can of tuna fish -
16 oz tuna steak
what is lethal range in pounds for a guy or a pregnant woman?
I hate to tell you but after years of consuming pink slime, fructose, GM foods etc, you have already been screwed health wise. Just eat your tuna and live it up.
Not true. Most of that damage can be reversed.
Did you say "most" ?
Let me check . . . . . yep, that's what I said. Because "all" doesn't make sense when you are talking about a constantly changing system of almost unthinkable complexity and over a random sample regardless of age or years and extent of exposure.
Short periods of possible health improvement on the slow road to a radioactive death.
Unless one dies of 'Sudden Death Syndrome'. Very popular in Japan, they just drop where they stand.
The bad health effects I was saying are mostly reversable are the ones arising from corn syrup etc. I wasn't talking about nuke poisoning. I was trying to make the case that ingested hot particles are much more intractable health issue than corn syrup. (not that corn syrup is good by any means!)
Désolé, Monsieur.
Ce n'est rien.
Since you have some radionucleotides in your body and in the environment, it's ok to ingest polonium 210. As, Alexander Litvinenko: silence = agreement.
"Alexander Litvinenko claimed that the 1999 bombings were a false flag attack coordinated by the FSB in order to win public support for a new full-scale war in Chechnya, which boosted Prime Minister and former FSB Director Vladimir Putin's popularity, and brought the pro-war Unity Party to the State Duma and Putin to the presidency within a few months"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings
Litvinenko was killed by Polonium; Arafat also was killed by Polonium. But Russia had nothing against Arafat, so maybe Litvinenko upset other people besides (eventually) the Kremlin - maybe he knew something about Berezovsky's businesses/partners? Remember media tycoon Robert Maxwell died supposedly in an accident, after being a top Israeli asset for decades, and now Berezovsky supposedly suicided.
I'd look deeper for who/what both Litvinenko and Arafat might've had in common (ie: enemies), that had them killed by the same MO. Maybe there's some surprises hidden in there...
He wasn't the only one.
Many reports show that the Russian KGB apparently conducted a wave of bombings in Russia in order to justify war against Chechnya and put Vladimir Putin into power (see also this short essay and this report)
But it's not just the Russian commies ...
Everybody does it!