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The Environmental Protection Agency recommends reverse osmosis water treatment to remove radioactive isotopes that emit beta-particle radiation. But iodine-131, a beta emitter, is typically present in water as a dissolved gas, and reverse osmosis is known to be ineffective at capturing gases. A combination of technologies, however, may remove most or all of the iodine-131 that finds its way into tap water, all available in consumer products for home water treatment.

When it found iodine-131 in drinking water samples from Boise, Idaho and Richland, Washington this weekend, the EPA declared: An infant would have to drink almost 7,000 liters of this water to receive a radiation dose equivalent to a day’s worth of the natural background radiation exposure we experience continuously from natural sources of radioactivity in our environment.” But not everyone accepts the government’s reassurances. Notably, Physicians for Social Responsibility has insisted there is no safe level of exposure to radionuclides, regardless of the fact that we encounter them naturally:

There is no safe level of radionuclide exposure, whether from food, water or other sources. Period,” said Jeff Patterson, DO, immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Exposure to radionuclides, such as iodine-131 and cesium-137, increases the incidence of cancer. For this reason, every effort must be taken to minimize the radionuclide content in food and water.” via Physicians for Social Responsibility, psr.org No matter where you stand on that debate, you might be someone who simply prefers not to ingest anything that escaped from a damaged nuclear reactor. If so, here’s what we know: Reverse Osmosis The EPA recommends reverse osmosis water treatment for most kinds of radioactive particles. Iodine-131 emits a small amount of gamma radiation but much larger amounts of beta radiation, and so is considered a beta emitter:

Oct. 30 — Iodine-131 was detected in several samples of rice from late October, according to the results of the Citizen’s Radioactivity Measuring Station, a private institution. Other recent iodine-131 detections include: Recriticality? Major Japan paper reports on detection of iodine-131 in Tokyo, Kawasaki – From Oct. 18 “Recriticality may be happening continuously” — Iodine-131 detected in Nagasaki, Miyagi (CHARTS) -From Oct. 3

Because of the relatively short half-life of Iodine-131, Fukushima Diary says, “This may prove Fukushima went back to recriticality state in September.”

(UPDATE: Now, Niigata Prefecture's site says it is radioactive CESIUM, not iodine.)

Niigata Prefecture announced the result of the test for radioactive materials in milk and milk products on September 29.Iodine-131 was detected from the milk from Miyagi Prefecture.According to the Niigata prefectural government site:Date tested: September 28Item: MilkPlace produced: Miyagi PrefectureRadioactive cesium: NDRadioactive iodine: 19.1 becquerels/kg

Remember those detections in wide areas of Japan in mid August to early September of iodine-131 in sewer sludge, and mostly dismissed as a patient or two in each city being treated for thyroid-related illnesses?I wish Niigata Prefecture say where in Miyagi, but these milk cows did eat or drink something that was freshly contaminated with radioactive iodine, and I don't think that something was the radioactive sewer sludge.

Very low levels of the radioactive isotope iodine-131 in northern part of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Norwegian Radiation authorities is unsure about the source, but says it might come from, or via Russian territory.

Norwegian Radiation Protection Authorities (NRPA) says in a short press-note Tuesday evening that the levels they measured pose no health risk. The measurements of radioactive iodine in northern part of the Barents Region were made several days ago, but results of the analyses were first made public Tuesday evening by coordinated press-notes from radiation authorities in Finland, Sweden and Norway. NRPA says that two of the six online measuring stations in Finnmark in the high north of Norway have indicated increased levels of radioactive iodine.

Swedish radiation protection authority says in thier brief that very low levels of radioactive iodine-131 are meassured at their station in Kiruna in northern Sweden.

12/22/2011, Gunma local government announced they measured 17 Bq/kg of Iodine 131 from the sewage sludge of a water purifying plant. They also measured 44 ~ 68 Bq/kg of cesium from 6 plants too. The samples were taken from 12/6 ~ 12/14. They measured Iodine 131 from the samples of 11/21 ~ 12/1 as well

Title: Detection of Xe135 at Nuclear Reactor of Unit 2, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Author: Tepco Date: November 4, 2011 Excerpt from Page 6: “There is a possibility that the gas collected in the inlet filter contain iodine, but because iodine nuclides decayed, and no other nuclides decay.”* “Thus, It is considered that the measurement in the inlet filter is below the detection limit due to high background level.” “In addition, it is considered that the measurement of I-131 in the outlet filter is below the detection limit due to adsorption of charcoal filter.” *This is an original Tepco document, it is not from an online translation. Radioactive iodine is a product of uranium fission:

After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, Soviet officials were vilified for hiding the impacts from the public. But when Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident took place last March, public officials in Japan and Canada alike jumped straight into Chernobyl-style damage-control mode, dismissing any worries about impacts. Now evidence has emerged that the radiation in Canada was worse than Canadian officials ever let on. A Health Canada monitoring station in Calgary detected radioactive material in rainwater that exceeded Canadian guidelines during the month of March, according to Health Canada data obtained by the Georgia Straight.

Canadian government officials didn’t disclose the high radiation readings to the public. Instead, they repeatedly insisted that fallout drifting to Canada was negligible and posed no health concerns. In fact, the data shows rainwater in Calgary last March had an average of 8.18 becquerels per litre of radioactive iodine, easily exceeding the Canadian guideline of six becquerels per litre for drinking water. “It’s above the recommended level [for drinking water],” Eric Pellerin, chief of Health Canada’s radiation-surveillance division, admitted in a phone interview from Ottawa. “At any time you sample it, it should not exceed the guideline.”

Radioactive-iodine levels also spiked in March in Vancouver (which saw an average of 0.69 becquerels per litre), Winnipeg (which saw 0.64 becquerels per litre) and Ottawa (which saw 1.67 becquerels per litre), the data shows. These levels didn’t exceed the Canadian guidelines, but the level discovered in Ottawa did surpass the more stringent ceiling for drinking water used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is 54 times less than the six becquerels per litre of iodine-131 (a radioactive isotope) allowed in this country.

The amount of radioactive cesium ejected by the Fukushima reactor meltdowns is about 168 times higher than that emitted in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the government's nuclear watchdog said Friday.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency provided the estimate at the request of a Diet panel but noted that making a simple comparison between an instantaneous bomb blast and a long-term accidental leak is problematic and could lead to "irrelevant" results.

The report said the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant has released 15,000 terabecquerels of cesium-137, which lingers for decades and can cause cancer, compared with the 89 terabecquerels released by the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Thyroid cancer cases have more than doubled since 1997 in the United States, while deadly industrial practices that contaminate groundwater with radiation and other carcinogens are also rising. New information released by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 56,460 people will develop thyroid cancer in 2012 and 1,780 will die from it.

From 1980 to 1996, thyroid cancer increased nearly 300%, while the population increased by (again) 18%. Most thyroid cancers don’t develop for 10-30 years after radiation exposure, but the monstrous spike in thyroid cancer from 1980-2012 is only partly the result of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 (TMI). Pennsylvania, with its nine nuclear reactors, does have the highest incidence of thyroid cancer across nearly all demographics among 45* states, reports epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, MPH MBA, of the Radiation and Public Health Project. In 2009, he analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control’s national survey of thyroid cancer incidence for the years 2001-2005 and compared it with proximity to nuclear power stations, finding:

M]ost U.S. counties with the highest thyroid cancer incidence are in a contiguous area of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southern New York. Exposure to radioactive iodine emissions from 16 nuclear power reactors within a 90 mile radius in this area … are likely a cause of rising incidence rates.

Professor Kodama is the head of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo.Professor Kodama's anger is now directed toward the government's non-action to protect people, especially children and young mothers, from internal radiation exposure. His specialty is internal medicine using radioisotope, so he says he has done the intense research on internal radiation:

I have been in charge of antibody drugs at the Cabinet Office since Mr. Obuchi was the prime minister [1998-]. We put radioisotopes to antibody drugs to treat cancer. In other words, my job is to inject radioisotopes into human bodies, so my utmost concern is the internal radiation exposure and that is what I have been studying intensely.

The biggest problem of internal radiation is cancer. How does cancer happen? Because radiation cuts DNA strands. As you know, DNA is in a double helix. When it is in a double helix it is extremely stable. However, when a cell divides, the double helix becomes single strands, doubles and becomes 4 strands. This stage is the most vulnerable.

Silver-110m, half life about 250 days, wouldn't have been discovered unless the control rods had melted at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.There was the news in early April that radioactive silver was detected in South Korea. There was no way the same nuclide wasn't falling in Japan if it could fly all the way to Korea, I thought

It was not until 2PM on July 29 that the Ministry of Education and Science announced the "reading of environmental radioactivity level by prefecture [Fallout]" for March 2011.

What's the point of telling us now? Just for the record?Radioactive materials that were falling in the Kanto region in March, other than iodine-131, cesium-134 and -137, are:

just how far did the radioactive plume travel? On the 27 March Romul Mărgineanu, from the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH) in Romania, and colleagues, began to collect samples of rainwater from Braşov and Slănic-Prahova. And on 5 April they also started to collect samples of sheep and goat's milk from the same regions. The samples were all taken to the IFIN-HH's underground laboratory at the Unirea salt mine in Slănic-Prahova, for analysis. Inside this ultra-low radiation environment the levels of iodine131 and caesium137 were measured, using a high resolution gamma-ray spectrometer.

None of the samples contained caesium137 at detectable levels. However, iodine131 was present at up to 0.75 Bq per litre in rainwater, and up to 5.2 Bq per litre in milk. "The level of I-131 in sheep and goat milk was higher than in rain water due to bioaccumulation," explains Mărgineanu. "Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance – chemical or radioactive – at a rate greater than that at which the substance is lost."

Such levels were two to three orders of magnitude below any intervention limits, for example the limit set for drinking water in Japan was 300 Bq per litre for adults and children and 100 Bq per litre for infants. In this case weather conditions played a role in keeping the radiation levels low. In the weeks following the accident Romania only experienced very light rain; had the rain been heavier more radiation may have been precipitated out. The results are published in Environmental Research Letters.

A survey shows that a small amount of radioactive iodine has been detected in the thyroid glands of hundreds of children in Fukushima Prefecture. The result was reported to a meeting of the Japan Pediatric Society in Tokyo on Saturday. A group of researchers led by Hiroshima University professor Satoshi Tashiro tested 1,149 children in the prefecture for radiation in their thyroid glands in March following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Radioactive iodine was detected in about half of the children. Tashiro says radiation in thyroid glands exceeding 100 millisieverts poses a threat to humans, but that the highest level in the survey was 35 millisieverts. Tashiro says based on the result, it is unlikely that thyroid cancer will increase in the future, but that health checks must continue to prepare for any eventuality.

While readings of radiation in the air have returned to pre-3/11 levels in most areas of Japan — not including areas close to the plant and the so-called hot spots — the contamination of soil, which affects the food chain, could pose a long-term health risk, experts say. Iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137 were released in large quantities by the nuclear plant, and if they are accumulated in the body, they could cause cancer.

Kunikazu Noguchi, lecturer at Nihon University and an often-quoted expert on radiological protection, assures that consumers need not worry too much about any produce on the market, because at present, radiation levels in most vegetables, meat, dairy and other foods, even those from Fukushima Prefecture, are far below the government's safety limits and often undetectable. But for consumers concerned about the few incidents of tainted food slipping through the government checks (such as the beef from cattle that had been fed with tainted straw in Fukushima, which was shipped nationwide in July), or families with small children, Noguchi suggests a simple way to minimize their radiation exposure through food: rinse it.

rinsing the food well before cooking, preferably with hot water, and/or boiling or stewing it, a large portion of radioactive elements can be removed. In his book, published in Japanese in mid-July, "Hoshano Osen kara Kazoku wo Mamoru Tabekata no Anzen Manyuaru" ("The Safety Manual for Protecting Your Family From Radiation Contamination"), Noguchi offers tips on how to prepare food, item by item, so consumers can reduce their radiation intake at home.

Even as thousands of Japanese workers struggle to contain the ongoing nuclear disaster, low levels of radiation from those power plants have been detected in foods in the United States. Milk, fruits and vegetables show trace amounts of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daichi power plants, and the media appears to be paying scant attention, if any attention at all. It is as if the problem only involves Japan, not the vast Pacific Ocean, into which highly radioactive water has poured by the dozens of tons, and not into air currents and rainwater that carry radiation to U.S. soil and to the rest of the world. And while both Switzerland and Germany have come out against any further nuclear development, the U.S. the nuclear power industry continues as usual, with aging and crumbling power plants receiving extended operating licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as though it can’t happen here. But it is happening here, on your dinner plate.

According to Greenpeace, the ocean around large areas of Japan has been contaminated by toxic radioactive agents including cesium, iodine, plutonium and strontium. These radioactive agents are accumulating in sea life. Fish, shellfish and sea vegetables are absorbing this radiation, while airborne radioactive particles have contaminated land-based crops in Japan, including spinach and tea grown 200 miles south of the damaged nuclear plants. Meanwhile, on U.S. soil, radiation began to show up in samples of milk tested in California, just one month after the plants were damaged. Radiation tests conducted since the nuclear disaster in Japan have detected radioactive iodine and cesium in milk and vegetables produced in California. According to tests conducted by scientists at the UC Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering, milk from grass fed cows in Sonoma County was contaminated with cesium 137 and cesium 134. Milk sold in Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Vermont and Washington has also tested positive for radiation since the accident. 

Thanks to the jet stream air currents that flow across the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. is receiving a steady flow of radiation from Fukushima Daichi. And while many scientists say that the levels of contamination in food pose no significant threat to health, scientists are unable to establish any actual safe limit for radiation in food. Detection of radioactive iodine 131, which degrades rapidly, in California milk samples shows that the fallout from Japan is reaching the U.S. quickly

Title: UCB Milk Sampling Results Source: University of California Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering Date: 1/14/2012 (9:40am)

By integrating all of the milk data we have collected since March 11, we can estimate the total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) one could have received from exposure to fission product isotopes in milk to date. For someone drinking milk at the relatively high rate of one gallon per week, the TEDE could be nearly 1 microsievert, or the total effective dose equivalent for only 12 minutes on an airplane flight or 3.7 hours of the average person’s background exposure from natural sources of radiation.

Pasteurized, Homogenized Milk from the San Francisco Bay Area with Best By Date of 12/29/2011 Cs-134: 0.068 Becquerels/liter (Bq/l) ±0.011 [MDA=0.044] Cs-137: 0.075 Bq/l ±0.015 [MDA=0.052] Total cesium is .143 Bq/l, or 3.87 picocuries/l (pCi/l) (1 Bq = 27.1 pCi). The EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for radioactive cesium in milk is 3 pCi/l: