Published: April 6th, 2011 at 8:19 pm ET
|
Universities come through in monitoring for radiation, Seattle Times, April 5, 2011:
[Kai Vetter, UC Berkeley professor of nuclear engineering] and his colleagues try to put the health risks in perspective by pairing their data with calculations of “effective doses.” For example, a person would have to drink 134 liters of the rainwater with the highest radiation levels to equal the average radiation exposure from flying cross-country. …
[Robert Alvarez, a former DOE deputy assistant secretary for national security] is critical of those kinds of comparisons, which are also offered by EPA and health agencies.
Isotopes like iodine-131 are not part of normal background radiation, and have unique properties that background radiation does not, like accumulating in the thyroid gland, he pointed out.
“The doses are extremely small, and so, too, are the risks,” he said. “But they liken it to everyday life and it’s not like everyday life. You shouldn’t have radioactive iodine even in tiny quantities finding its way into your milk supplies.” …
Read the report here.
Published: April 6th, 2011 at 8:19 pm ET
|
sending...
According to the EPA, Painesville, Ohio precipitation was 48/parts of I-131 per liter. So, if that’s the case where I live, in 8 more days it’s 24, another 8 days, 12, another 8 days 6, another 8 days 3, another 8 days 1.5, another 8 days, .75 and so on. That’s an awful long time for I-131 to dissipate and it’s still there!
If more of this noxious I-131 radiation is emitted, it ends up as precipitation and starts decaying all over again. Instead of making a rain barrel, I set up the downspout from the backyard gutter to go directly into the garden. All of that I-131 in my garden, a really smart idea!
As I read some of the posts, I do agree and it is very possible that my burning eyes and throat could be from pollution and acid rain.
Around St. Patrick’s Day or a few days later I was hiking in the woods with our maine coon cat and it just smelled so weird outside, like some kind of odd chemical smell. I hope this wasn’t Xenon or something!!
As a lifelong democrat, I can tell you that I will be voting Green Party for President. After last year’s tragic gulf oil spill, I vowed I would NEVER vote for Obama again. I am truly fed up! All that really matters is clean air, food, and water.
Report Comment
Yes, I don’t think you can compare external radiation effects with internal effects on I-131. From my reading, once it enters the body is isn’t broken down the same way it does in the environment. So 8 day half-life doesn’t apply once inside. Also, what is to be said for the effects of the repetative and prolonged exposure we are seeing here?
So comparing dose and using the analogy of an airline flight is nonsense imo. While it appears to have 8 days half-life outside of body, it isn’t this way inside the body. So if your going to compare, may sure it’s apples to apples please! You don’t need to be a scientist to have common sense!
Report Comment
Actually ” half life” is not related to whether or not it is inside you.The high energy isotopes will decay to more stable forms by emitting energy/particles wherever they may be-they are not rendered less radioactive by their environment.But you are quite correct that the dose received once they enter your system is trillions of time greater than externally.
Anyone comparing ionizing radiation to ANYTHING else is either deluded,or intent on deceiving-nothing else on earth has the same properties, or associated risks.
Report Comment