Food Monitoring for the US

How low should we go - FDA limit for US

Bye-Bye Becquerels

Is there radiation in the food?Ami is 10 and lives in Yanaizu, Fukushima prefecture.

Technical Talk We are already contaminated Who’s testing food What they are finding

The a b g’s of radioactivity

Different types of radiation (a, b, g) are blocked by different substances

Radioactivity is measured in Becquerels where 1 Bq = 1 atomic disintegration per second

Technical Difficulties

“It was beautiful to look upon, so that any one who should see it must long for it, but whoever ate even a little bit of it must die.”

Strontium 90 emits a beta particlePlutonium 239 emits an alpha particle

Cesium 137 emits a gamma ray*

ATOMIC BOMB blasts worldwide:

Contamination Sources

954 quadrillion Bq cesium 137 (that’s 15 zeros)

ROUTINE RELEASES US

????

Cesium 134 & 137

CHERNOBYL85 quadrillion Bq cesium 137

500 quadrillion Bq noble gas (unspecified, to air)

Since April 2012, 10 million Bq cesium-134 & 137 are still released every hour

FUKUSHIMA cesium 134 & 137 27.1 quadrillion Bq (air and ocean)

US: Who’s Testing?

What they found (so far)9-11 Bq/kg Cs 134 & & Cs 137

600-2,500 Bq/kg I 131

18 Bq/kg Cs 134 & Cs 137

650 Bq/kg to2300 Bq/kg Cs

14 Bq/kg Cs 134 & Cs 137

1,038 Bq/kg Cs

How low should you go?

Making contaminated food acceptable

International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) 111

“placing contaminated food on the market”

“ negative reactions from consumers outside the contaminated areas “

Bye-Bye Becquerels

-Silence Deafening: www.silencedeafening.com-Beyond Nuclear: www.beyondnuclear.org

-FFAN coalition includes mothers who evacuated from Japan to escape radioactive contamination and were horrified to learn the US recommendations are worse-5Bq/kg binding rather than just recommendations-Widespread testing: foodstuffs, etc.