Track the Japanese Radiation Plume on it's way to California

[Country]

I have heard that the radioactive plume is composed of primarily Strontium and Cesium isotopes.

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/485/144/Track_the_Radiation_Plume.html

A good defense is to build up antioxidents in yourself via supplementation - some preps for the possibilities.

(Iodine, Tocotrienols, Berries, and Lipoic Acid to Protect Against Radiation Exposure)

http://www.wellnessresources.com/health/articles/iodine_tocotrienols_berries_and_lipoic_acid_to_protect_against_radiation_ex/

[franklin]

Since berries are included, would strawberry daiquiris qualify?

[Country]

Since berries are included, would strawberry daiquiris qualify?

Nope... But, you'll have a pleasant time on the way out.

[blackrabbit]

Thanks for the info, this is really serious.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

Thanks for the info Country! I have been looking for this and it doesn't seem to be too important for the MSM. They would rather report on the latest basketball championships with BHO comments.

My daughter is in her first trimester and we need to protect her as much as possible.

[Redneck]

.

This is what everyone needs to worry about.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news ... r-tensions

MOX - mixed oxides of uranium and plutonium

This is bad $hit.

Really,really bad $hit.

>

[Cerulean]

I watched the Pacfic region animation, and I thought, "Boy, it sure sucks to be in Kamchatka right now."

Note that the color scales for these animations are logarithmic, just like the Richter Scale. This means that most of this plume only has trace amounts of radiation. The parts severe enough to bother humans are not leaving the area of Japan without dissipating.

[frugalcanuck]

Im no nuclear scientist but I think any amount of radioactive particles is not good for humans. It may be a paper cut juxtapose loosing a leg but it is still bad for you. It could also be the tiny paper cut today that kills you 10 years down the road.

Thats just like here in Ontario, two weeks ago 73000L of radioactive contaminated water was dumpped into Lake Ontario. When word of the dump got out this week the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission made a public announcement that this was not hazardus to human health. I dont buy that for one second. I think the people who make these statements should show this by drinking the contaminated water, bathing their family with it, wash their food and water their lawn with this "not hazardus to human health" water.

[Cerulean]

I did take a few semesters of nuclear physics and reactor engineering in college. I don't call myself an expert, but I feel informed enough to approach this issue with scientific critical thought.

You are always being hit with radiation all the time, just by being a human being living on planet Earth. Radiation is part of our natural environment, and it's impossible to eliminate it completely. Is it harmful? Yes. Is the amount of damage done to you by this radiation negligible? Yes.

The Sv is a Sievert, a unit used to measure ionizing radiation dosage. You are being bombarded by 0.28 mSv per year from naturally occurring radioactive decay from elements in the Earth's crust. You get 0.24 mSv from the sky due to cosmic radiation (the very little that manages to penetrate the atmosphere). As a human being, you emit 0.40 mSv yourself per year. The Fukushima emergency workers are evacuated if they experience the equivalent of 250 mSv/year.

Without proper units on these animations for dosage, whether in rems, Sieverts, Grays, or rads, there is no way of knowing what this animation means to your health. If you think some of those purple swirls are wafting over your part of the world, you'd get the idea that your lawn will start to glow in the dark, when in fact it might be less radiation than you'd get on a cross-country flight. It might not even be detectable separate from all the other natural radiation that's already near you. These animations do not give you enough information to determine health risk... they are just presenting air movement. Until somebody measures unnaturally high doses of radiation on the West Coast, there's no point in worrying.

"Radiation", just like "bacteria", "mercury", "lead", and "cholesterol", is a word that people freak out about, thinking that any amount is unsafe. The truth is that dosage and exposure levels mean that there are shades of gray. There are unsafe levels, and there are reasonably safe levels. Our ability to measure really small doses gets better with time, and we are finding out just how common these "dangerous" substances are.

(In fact, if you were to sterilize your entire body so that no single living organism besides yourself remained, you would die. There are symbiotic bacteria living on your skin and in your body that benefit you and help keep you alive.) You get radiation from eating a banana.

[Cerulean]

For actual nuclear physicist coverage of the Fukushima incident, y'all should be reading this:
http://mitnse.com/

[Cerulean]

Thats just like here in Ontario, two weeks ago 73000L of radioactive contaminated water was dumped into Lake Ontario. When word of the dump got out this week the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission made a public announcement that this was not hazardous to human health. I don't buy that for one second. I think the people who make these statements should show this by drinking the contaminated water, bathing their family with it, wash their food and water their lawn with this "not hazardous to human health" water.

Here is another good example of how dosage matters. If you drank, washed, and bathed ONLY with the contaminated water, you probably would have a problem. But when you mix it into Lake Ontario, things are different. 73,000 liters (3% of an Olympic swimming pool) is nothing compared to the 1,640,000,000,000,000 liters of water in Lake Ontario. Mixed together, that contaminated water amounts to only 0.00000000445% of the lake, less than half of one part per billion. That is negligible to human health, even if the contaminated liquid were lead paint. (The EPA does not take action against municipal water agencies unless 10% of samples exceed 15 parts per billion.)

[Mossy]

(In fact, if you were to sterilize your entire body so that no single living organism besides yourself remained, you would die. There are symbiotic bacteria living on your skin and in your body that benefit you and help keep you alive.) You get radiation from eating a banana.

LOL, the mitichondria in our cells are a type of bacteria, so far as that goes.

I compare radiation to a fire: The hotter it is, the faster it burns the fuel and goes out. The longer it lasts, the "cooler" the fire. The iron in the chair people sit on might be "radioactive", if we accept a million year half life as "radioactive".

[No82s]

The solution to pollution is dilution!

[Mossy]

The solution to pollution is dilution!

Medical saying: "The dose is the poison."

[rickygee]

That's it, right there, right now. I'm protecting the noggin'...

"Ma'am, I only take my tinfoil hat off for one thing, and that's gotta be in a grounded lead lined room."

[blackrabbit]

The normal radiation we are exposed to is fine, what I am worried about is the radioactive isotope particles that may be raining down upon where I live right now. I know it's dilute by the time it gets here but I'd rather not ingest one more particle of plutonium, uranium, strontium 90 or any other radioactive isotopes. Also with radioactive stuff dumped in water, there is the process of bio-accumulation that worries me. I like tasty fish but not toxic/radioactive ones. Also MIT is awash in Nuclear Industry money, so I would think they would not be very neutral.

[Mossy]

BlackRabbit, have you researched the mercury deposits along the California coast? I know of two that were large enough to mine, and that means there were probably more that were too small to bother with, and mercury is just naturally running off into the ocean near where you live. Also, the Mother Lode extended from roughly Stockton all the way north into Oregon (but in the Sierra Nevadas) and the placer miners used a lot of mercury where it would run off into the Sacremento River, and out the Golden Gate.

Bon Apetit.

[blackrabbit]

Do you know anyone dying of cancer, or has a degenerative neurological condition right now ? I have friends with both. I find it rather disturbing you joke about such things.

[blackrabbit]

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/03/19/realtime-epa-japan-nuclear-fallout-radiation-graphs-west-coast-cities-9228/ The data in these graphs is what I was hoping to find. This makes me feel better knowing I can see any spike in radiation in the city of Eureka which I live a couple miles from. So far looks OK!

[JadeDragon]

That's it, right there, right now. I'm protecting the noggin'...

"Ma'am, I only take my tinfoil hat off for one thing, and that's gotta be in a grounded lead lined room."

Lead is toxic and known to cause cancer. We are not even allowed lead in paint now.

[Mossy]

Do you know anyone dying of cancer

Me. I need $1300 worth of medicine each month.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

Do you know anyone dying of cancer

Me. I need $1300 worth of medicine each month.

Oh, Mossy. I am very sorry to hear that.

I went through the easiest form of chemo during Nov. thru Feb. and I will tell anyone it really sucked. If that was bad.... I don't even want to imagine the harshest forms of chemo.

You have my sympathies.

[Mossy]

Thanks.

Thems the breaks.

[blackrabbit]

Sorry to hear about your illness. I know a lot of folks with cancer and don't want anyone else to get it. That is why I am concerned about radioactive and other toxic pollution. I help a few Chemo patients with herbal medication.

[Mossy]

No sweat.

Just gave you a poke, pointing out that we are surrounded by risk, and it got a little out of hand. Sorry.