Radiation from Japan found in MASS

[dukeboy_318]

Oh but I thought it could not reach the US.

heres the article. Some interesting reading.

Radiation in Mass. rainwater likely from Japan - Yahoo! News

So having read that, what are our options? should we break out the KI? or let it pass for now?

 

[grimor]

I'm not worried, we're exposed to radiation every day. I doubt anyone will be growing any 3rd arms or getting super powers from this.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Oh but I thought it could not reach the US.

You thought wrong. Yes, I know you were being sarcastic, but there's a difference between "It can't reach the US" and "what reaches the US will be dangerous levels."

For anyone who wants to put radiation exposure levels in context, this chart and explanation is one of the best I've seen yet:
Radiation Chart xkcd

Pass on the KI for now: the side effects and risks of using it are far higher than your risks of problems from trace I-131 exposure.

Most people won't think twice about making a call on their cell-phone while driving, yet are terrified of the risks of radiation exposure from the plant accident. The former has a much higher risk of immediate and catastrophic injury or death.

 

[JetGirl]

.

Nevada and other Western states also have reported minuscule amounts of radiation

Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small small world...

 

[gunman41mag]

Oh but I thought it could not reach the US.

heres the article. Some interesting reading.

Radiation in Mass. rainwater likely from Japan - Yahoo! News

So having read that, what are our options? should we break out the KI? or let it pass for now?

We have to monitor the radiation coming from JAPAN

 

[ATOMonkey]

pffftttt... Radiated water is nothing to worry about. It has an extremely short half life. That radiation in that water could have come from any number of sources.

This is the scenario in which you need to begin to worry: The nuclear plant EXPLODES and leaves nothing but a smoking crater in the ground. At this point there are lots of bits of actual radioactive material in the air. Most of it will fall within the blast radius. Some of it will become airborn as part of a cloud and rain down on someone else down wind. This is a very small percentage though. Most nuclear material is too heavy to become imbedded in a dust could at high altitude. It would need to be very very very very small to actually make it to cloud status dust.

We burn coal that contains mercury and then just blow all that smoke out of a column and no one worries about mercury poisoning living down wind of a coal fired plant. (well I'm sure some do.) Mercury is a heavy metal and as such is very difficult to get it to float through the air. Uranium and Plutonium are even heavier.

What we have here is only exposed nuclear material that is being cooled by water. Obviously the water becomes irradiated, but it quickly loses the radiation. For the same reason you don't glow after riding in an airplane or getting an x-ray at the hospital.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Central Data Exchange | US EPA

https://cdxnode64.epa.gov/radnet-public/showMap.do

Japanese Nuclear Emergency: EPA's Radiation Air Monitoring | US EPA

 

[philo]

Uranium, radium and other radioactive isotopes are common impurities in hard coal (anthracite). More radioactivity is released everyday through power plant exhaust stacks than was ever released from Three Mile Island. It's nothing to panic about, just a fact of life.

 

[dukeboy_318]

There, edited the sarcasim

 

[shooter1054]

It's Mass.....so what?

 

[E5RANGER375]

the point is that people even the president implied and said it wouldnt reach even the western U.S. at all. I was one who called BS from the beginning. sure I had some inside info, but others who said NO WAY claimed they had inside info too. the amount of radiation is insignificant to the argument in that we shouldn't even have to worry about this in the first place. like I said on here a couple days after the initial accident, DONT BUY ANY MILK or PRODUCE FROM THE WEST COAST for a while!!!!

no im not panicked by the levels that have traveled here, I am pissed that once again we were lied to by the government when they knew better from the beginning, and also this could have been prevented by being handled faster and better by japan! but once again, true to past form the japs are a bunch of liars too.

 

[moischmoe]

I'm not worried, we're exposed to radiation every day. I doubt anyone will be growing any 3rd arms or getting super powers from this.

Bummer! I could use either.

 

[dukeboy_318]

the point is that people even the president implied and said it wouldnt reach even the western U.S. at all. I was one who called BS from the beginning. sure I had some inside info, but others who said NO WAY claimed they had inside info too. the amount of radiation is insignificant to the argument in that we shouldn't even have to worry about this in the first place. like I said on here a couple days after the initial accident, DONT BUY ANY MILK or PRODUCE FROM THE WEST COAST for a while!!!!

no im not panicked by the levels that have traveled here, I am pissed that once again we were lied to by the government when they knew better from the beginning, and also this could have been prevented by being handled faster and better by japan! but once again, true to past form the japs are a bunch of liars too.

I agree totally. This was the entire point of my thread. Its the flat out lies and misinformation or lack there of that gets me. Yeah, I know the amounts are little, but once again, we were assured that it would never reach the US when in fact, all someone had to do was look at the jet stream and wind paths.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I agree totally. This was the entire point of my thread. Its the flat out lies and misinformation or lack there of that gets me. Yeah, I know the amounts are little, but once again, we were assured that it would never reach the US when in fact, all someone had to do was look at the jet stream and wind paths.

I could be wrong because I really don't ever pay any attention to what the government says, I get my information from trusted sources, but did the government actually say that NO radiation would reach us? Or did they say that no radiation would reach us at any significant or dangerous levels? There is a big difference. The latter is exactly what is happening (it's reaching us but it's not even close to dangerous levels, it's not even the least bit concerning yet). IMHO, anybody that said the former (none would reach us) would absolutely be lying, there is simply no possible way to say that none could reach us.

Do you have any articles where the POTUS or .gov said that none would reach us?

 

[longbow]

The truth appears to be lagging between a week and two weeks. As I have said before, this event is far from over... I'm very glad I'm not within 25 miles of the site or 300 miles down wind..

The press seems to be about three to four days behind what is talked about in the background. They were freaking last week about the radioactive seawater, and I just noticed it is getting press in the last 24 hours.

The issue they are now dealing with is getting additional employees. A large percentage of the workers are getting close to the dose limits and cannot work inside the plant.

The clean up is going to need 1,000's of workers to do it right, even with the changes in the maximum dose the workers can get.

 

[yepthatsme]

What really concerns me is the nuclear power plants that are located in central Illinois. Central Indiana is definately downwind of them and many of us are within 150 to 200 miles of them. Should there ever be an accident, we could become the victims.

I'll have to start working on a tin foil suit to match my tin foil hat.

 

[smokingman]

Levels in the rain in PA 25 times the legal limit.Those on cisterns that gather rain water advised to find an alternate source of drinking water.

The numbers reported in the rainwater samples in Pennsylvania range from 40-100 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Although these are levels above the background levels historically reported in these areas, they are still about 25 times below the level that would be of concern. The federal drinking water standard for Iodine-131 is three pCi/L.(if the legal limit is 3 how can levels at 100 be of no concern if I am not mistaken even the Japanese advise the upper limit for infants is 100 for short term exposure???!)

News Releases

EPA: Expect More Radiation in Rainwater - Jeff McMahon - The Ingenuity of the Commons - Forbes

The Virginia Health Department issued an advisory Monday telling residents not to drink rainwater gathered in cisterns because of the radiation reported in Pennsylvania. The release said Virginia officials are conducting their own tests this week.

Radioactive rain on its way

Of course here in Indiana we must not be getting any of that nasty stuff in our rain.

On a side note.I would like to thank Obama and the EPA for making sure Americans are safe and letting us know that radiation from Japan would not reach the United States.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Levels in the rain in PA 25 times the legal limit.Those on cisterns that gather rain water advised to find an alternate source of drinking water.

The numbers reported in the rainwater samples in Pennsylvania range from 40-100 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Although these are levels above the background levels historically reported in these areas, they are still about 25 times below the level that would be of concern. The federal drinking water standard for Iodine-131 is three pCi/L.(if the legal limit is 3 how can levels at 100 be of no concern if I am not mistaken even the Japanese advise the upper limit for infants is 100 for short term exposure???!)

News Releases

EPA: Expect More Radiation in Rainwater - Jeff McMahon - The Ingenuity of the Commons - Forbes

The Virginia Health Department issued an advisory Monday telling residents not to drink rainwater gathered in cisterns because of the radiation reported in Pennsylvania. The release said Virginia officials are conducting their own tests this week.

Radioactive rain on its way

Of course here in Indiana we must not be getting any of that nasty stuff in our rain.

On a side note.I would like to thank Obama and the EPA for making sure Americans are safe and letting us know that radiation from Japan would not reach the United States.

Oh geeze... read the article... differentiate between drinking water and rain water.

The limit on drinking water is 3 pCi/L according to the article. They tested rainwater and stated that their measurements were 25 times less than the level of concern. Is there even a maximum level for I-131 in rainwater? What are they going to do if mother nature breaks that level? Ban the rain from falling down?

Most drinking water gets filtered through the ground, and the levels will be negligible by that time.

Also, what you forgot to include is that they only listed 3 samples (not exactly a good sample size, how many came up much lower?). 1 sample in Harrisburg was 41 pCi/L, the other 2 were both taken at nuclear power plants and were 90 & 100 pCi/L. Of course levels are going to be elevated there.

 

[smokingman]

Oh geeze... read the article... differentiate between drinking water and rain water.

The limit on drinking water is 3 pCi/L according to the article. They tested rainwater and stated that their measurements were 25 times less than the level of concern. Is there even a maximum level for I-131 in rainwater? What are they going to do if mother nature breaks that level? Ban the rain from falling down?

Most drinking water gets filtered through the ground, and the levels will be negligible by that time.

Also, what you forgot to include is that they only listed 3 samples (not exactly a good sample size, how many came up much lower?). 1 sample in Harrisburg was 41 pCi/L, the other 2 were both taken at nuclear power plants and were 90 & 100 pCi/L. Of course levels are going to be elevated there.

The level for drinking water is 3 pci/L .They detected levels as high as 100 in the rain water.Not everyone is blessed like we are in Indiana with abundant underground water.In PA for example many rural homes use cisterns that gather rain water.Those are the people being advised to not drink there water.As far as the levels that are "safe.In Japan 100 pci/L is considered unsafe for infants and pregnant women.They are not saying that rain water is safe.They are saying those levels have not been detected in municipal water supplies,only in the rain.PA did issue an advisory for those on cisterns.The levels will accumulate.

As far as the sensors at the nuclear plant.In order to pick up cesium and iodine from the plant itself it would need to be in a melt down or having a radioactive release.Cesium and Iodine are not released by any plant in the world under normal operating conditions.The plants do have sensors to detect any such release,and in this case they picked up the release from Japan as stated by the EPA.So that data should be considered fact,not skewed as you tried to make it sound because they where recorded at a nuclear plant.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Not everyone is blessed like we are in Indiana with abundant underground water.In PA for example many rural homes use cisterns that gather rain water.

First of all, you were questioning how 100pCi/L could be 25 times less than the dangerous level of 3 pCi/L. I showed you exactly how. It's because you were comparing 2 different types of water, one rain-water, the other drinking water. There is a difference. And for your argument that cisterns are common in PA, I beg to differ. Anybody drinking unfiltered water from a cistern is already risking themselves with a bunch of other nasty crap so what's the problem with adding a little radioactive material? There is probably a little bit in there already.

Straight from PSU guide on private water systems regarding cisterns.

Although uncommon in most of the state, they are used in areas where the groundwater supply is grossly polluted and there is no alternative source for drinking water.

So they are uncommon, and where they are used it's because the groundwater is already polluted. Sounds to me like those people better have good filtration in place anyways. As a matter of fact, they go on to recommend that cisterns aren't used unless they have a pretty elaborate setup of both pre-cistern filtration and post-cistern filtration. Seems to me that anybody that does have a cistern that doesn't also have filtration has likely been consuming lots of other bad crap over the years. Why does the sudden presence of trace amounts of radioactive particles changes that?

As far as the sensors at the nuclear plant.In order to pick up cesium and iodine from the plant itself it would need to be in a melt down or having a radioactive release.Cesium and Iodine are not released by any plant in the world under normal operating conditions.The plants do have sensors to detect any such release,and in this case they picked up the release from Japan as stated by the EPA.So that data should be considered fact,not skewed as you tried to make it sound because they where recorded at a nuclear plant.

I'm still not buying it. You can't tell me that the state of PA took measurements all over the place and only found it notable to mention 3 readings in their findings, and coincidentally the 2 readings that were over twice the third reading both took place at nuclear power plants. Tell me that doesn't seem fishy.