L.A. Daily News Column: Radioactive kelp is California’s “most under-reported story of the spring” — “It’s been somewhat radioactive off-and-on for months”

Published: April 29th, 2012 at 3:04 am ET
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Title: Thomas D. Elias: Coastal nuclear plants generate big questions
Source: LA Daily News
Author: Thomas D. Elias
Date: 04/24/2012

Anyone looking for the most under-reported story of the spring in California need seek no further than the tall stalks of kelp swaying back and forth just beneath the ocean surface along much of the California coast.

Fish eat kelp; so do small crustaceans near the bottom of the food chain that themselves are later consumed by larger fish that sometimes become food for humans. The largely-neglected news story is that it’s been somewhat radioactive off-and-on for months [...]

For sure, no one looks more prescient today than the 10 legislators who wrote the NRC weeks before Fukushima begging for public hearings in California before the renewal proceedings go very far. [...]

Read the report here

Published: April 29th, 2012 at 3:04 am ET
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52 comments

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52 comments to L.A. Daily News Column: Radioactive kelp is California’s “most under-reported story of the spring” — “It’s been somewhat radioactive off-and-on for months”

  • TheBigPicture TheBigPicture

    Eventually, everyone will know about the kelp because the story is here, and this is the world-wide-web. I'm confident that at some point, (everyone) will reach this site.


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    • Spot prawns. Let the season begin.
      May 1, 2012

      … Nothing says West Coast seafood as elegantly as spot prawns. There’s a certain elegance in spot prawn biology, too. In a move called sequential hermaphroditism, they start life as males and in their last year (about the third year), they turn into females to lay some 2,000 to 4,000 eggs. The advantage of the gender shift isn’t clearly understood even by the David Suzuki Foundation, but personally, I can see many benefits.
      “It’s one of those things in nature, not uncommon in the fish world,” …

      http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/05/01/spot-prawns-let-the-season-begin/


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  • WindorSolarPlease

    I bet kelp isn't the only thing that is radioactive,
    and under-reported.


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    • WindorSolarPlease

      Thank you.. I usually like being right, but not this time. I honestly want to be wrong.


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    • A year ago we knew about the sea kelp…and the rainwater, milk, spinach arugula and strawberries.

      If people had a clue, then every sushi restaurant would be out of business. I don't believe that any nori from Asia or the US is uncontaminated by radiation.

      No one has mentioned that contamination of all the marijuana that is grown in the Pacific Northwest, California and Colorado, all the places that received the highest contamination from Fukushima. I keep seeing this as a form of genocide. Look at all of the creative types who smoke. Look at all of the engineers who smoke. What happens when they all get incurable lung cancer from smoking the iodine-cesium-xenon-amenricanum-plutonium-uranium-laced pot? Certainly the US government will be happy, finally having a way to kill of the 'subversives".

      A friend of mine brags about selling weed to some very famous people. He grows outdoors (legally). I asked him about radiation and he looked at me as if I was smoking some of his product. From Fukushima?, I prodded further. That was last spring. I sent him links from news about the strawberries and arugula. He still planted outdoors last year and plans to start outdoors again very soon.

      I used to love it when friends would visit from California, sharing their magical weed. Now I wouldn't touch the stuff. How do you detox radiation from your lungs?


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      • wfs wfs

        Wouldnt a vaporizer leave the radiation particles behind? Isnt a dominant amount of medical MJ hydroponic? I use MJ for chronic pain. Its the only thing that really works.


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      • Bobby1

        Cannabis is very efficient at pulling isotopes from the soil, much better than sunflowers. The radioisotopes collect in the flowers. Marijuana grown outdoors is very suspect, users should look into hydroponic, greenhouse or imported varieties.


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        • BreadAndButter BreadAndButter

          "Cannabis is very efficient at pulling isotopes from the soil, much better than sunflowers."
          Hi Bobby, can you back up this claim, please? From what we learned in Fuku, sunflowers basically did nothing to help the situation at all. So I wonder why cannabis plants should behave any different….


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        • daddyfixit daddyfixit

          Cannabis was already suspect because if it was grown indoors (as most of it is) then it is soaking up all of the toxins from the decomposing materials we use to build our houses.


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  • WindorSolarPlease

    I think things will keep on being under-reported, unless the well known people, musicians, actors, the art industry, and so on, and so on, would all stand together against nuclear power and refuse to accept the lack of transparency.

    Do you think the people in charge, will listen to the every day person, they haven't so far.

    There are people who have clout and those who don't. We need a lot more people who have clout. We need more who will stand up, instead of just excepting awards.


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    • Whoopie Whoopie

      Yes your right. THAT would be great. How to get them to speak up is the thousand dollar question. Keep Tweeting them maybe. Wonder if they read all the tweets that come through to them. I really dont know. BTW love the new forum on Alternative energy. Good one!


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  • Radiation in the food chain ??? : |

    1200 + Dead Pelicans in Northern Peru, Same Region as Mass Dolphin Die-Off
    To Mass Animal Death On Sunday, April 29, 2012
    http://beforeitsnews.com/story/2076/695/

    More Mass Animal Deaths in Pacific… http://mass-animal-death.beforeitsnews.com/


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    • Cindy Cindy

      I am just mortified that these "Scientists" can't "see the forests for the trees"! They seem to always say that "lesions, sores, etc; all come from some a disease INSIDE the animal. They never say or maybe even suspect that it could be from Internal Radiation! !I'm sure they know, but are petrified to admit to radiation, for fear of the backlash. Wish they'd grow a pair!


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  • Whoopie Whoopie

    M 4.6 – Asia Japan [Fukushima-ken] Ena: Preliminary Earthquake Report: Date/Time: 29.04.2012 12:… http://bit.ly/JShFEt


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  • The U.S. now has an unusable and poisoned south and west coast.

    Fish from the West Coast: inedible.
    Fish from the Gulf: inedible.

    Canada's pristine west coast – goodbye.

    And all the tourist brochures that go with it.


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  • lam335 lam335

    A question recently occurred to me. Does anyone know where the iodine in vitamins and other supplements (and, for that matter, in the feed of animals like chicken, too) comes from? Is it derived from the waters off California, or from their sea weed (or, worse yet, from those of Japan or other places in east Asia)?


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    • enoughalready45 enoughalready45

      Hi Iam335,

      I don't have an answer for you but I have wondered the same thing. We were kind of getting into taking fish oil at our house before this all happened now I am concerned. Some fish oil is from the Atlantic but I have to really double check the source of the fish used.

      This is the new normal, checking the source of everything you put into your body.

      On a side note, I went out to dinner last night for tapas. More than half the menu was sea food, lots of shrimp. I wouldn't eat any of it.

      People in Illinois are still clueless about radiation. In the last week I've gone to a hydroponic garden supply place and a vegan raw food restaurant and mentioned Fukushima and radiation contamination. The people looked at me with blank responses, they didn't know what I was talking about. I think these people would be among the first to know what is going on but it is still not on most people's radar screens.


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    • Cindy Cindy

      Hi lam335…
      It depends on the supplier/manufacturer. You can buy Iodine supplements that have been harvested from South of the Equator or from a company that "grows" the kelp underneath tarps in pools.
      I've been using Nascent Iodine ( Nascent Iodine is recognized by the body as the same iodine that is produced by the thyroid and is absorbed effortlessly by the body.)It is considered the BEST form in Iodine. I really like it! It's not harsh..feels like velvet on the tongue. It's a little pricey but it works and I like to take it which warrants the higher price. Any store shelf vitamins w/ iodine in it, i would be VERY wary of. They use the cheapest form of iodine…from the cheapest places. Here's a link to the Nascent Iodine:
      http://www.magneticclay.com/store/nascent-iodine-supplement-1.aspx
      Hope this helps!


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      • BreadAndButter BreadAndButter

        Hi enoughalready & Cindy, may I ask why you take iodine supplements? I thought one gets plenty of it from a balanced diet / wholegrain bread?


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        • You'd need some seafood or seaweeds in there, or food grown in soil with lots of iodine in it. Or healthy meat that has received supplemental trace minerals during growth (usually a salt lick). There are still regions in this (and many other countries) with iodine-deficient soils and diets seafood poor, so goiter still occurs.


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        • enoughalready45 enoughalready45

          Hi B&B and Cindy,

          I think there is a little confusion here. Iam355 mentioned the Iodine that is in vitamins. I picked up on that because I wonder about the source of things that are in all types of vitamins and in fish oil because we take fish oil for the omega fatty acid, we did this pre-Fukushima.

          If I remember correctly Dr. Busby recommends some supplements like Iodine, Magnesium and Calcium so that your body would potentially reduce the amount of uptake of radioactive substances that like to take their place in the body especially if you are deficient in some way.


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        • WildTurnip WildTurnip

          Iodine for Health
          by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
          http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller20.html

          Iodine: The Most Misunderstood Nutrient
          David Brownstein, M.D.
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd34EJ5E3bI


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  • sonnen.blum.239 sonnen.blum.239

    no sushi for me, no fish, no veggies from CAlifornia, no apples from Washington State, no children from all the couples on the west coast.

    of course, i am told that i am pessimistic by my NPP friends.


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    • enoughalready45 enoughalready45

      Me too on the food. Looking into hydroponics to grow my own food.

      You are a realist. Do what you can. They will all be asking for your advice in a year.


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      • SnorkY2K

        I have been interested in hydroponics for years and just purchased the parts to build an indoor food farm that goes into your window. The best starter that you can build your own is at http://www.windowfarms.org/ . I am looking to substitute LED's for the flourescent lights for winter to drastically reduce power consumption.


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        • enoughalready45 enoughalready45

          Thanks for the info. Snork Y2K,

          The LED light idea sounds intersting.

          I'm just getting started and was wondering about adding some solar panels to the roof that could offset power for lights in winter. I will need heat too for outside greenhouse in Illinois. I'm still checking into if it is possible without taking out a 2nd morgage.


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        • enoughalready45 enoughalready45

          SnorkY2K,

          re: Hydroponics, post in Forum: Methods for combatting radiation. I'm trying to get other who are into hydroponics or want to learn about it to post/discuss in the Forum: Methods for combatting radiation. I just posted there about it. If you are intersted in sharing your knowledge it would be appreciated.


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  • Several facts are incorrect or misleading in this article.
    I am glad to see something in print, but it always turns out to be the same sort of spin.

    I don't understand when I read these newspaper articles, how the reporters somehow always seem to downplay anything to do with radiation or a that would shine a negative light on the Nuclear Power Industry.

    from article:
    "…the cesium (detected only in lower concentrations so far) lasts much longer, and will likely remain in sea life for more than 30 years." MISLEADING your Honor.

    Cesium has a decay rate (half-life) of 30 years (or more).
    HOWEVER, the calculation for HAZARDOUS to Life is to take the decay rate times 10. (easy to look up)
    Decay Rate x 10 = Hazardous To Life time frame

    So why don't we make it simple and say… "This stuff can kill or harm you and ALL LIFE for 300 years."

    from article:
    "That kind of incomplete data might have been one enabling factor in the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, which demonstrated that even a partial meltdown many thousands of miles away can produce measurable radiation increases here."

    What's this 'partial meltdown'? What's he talking about? MISLEADING your Honor.

    How about stating real facts, like…
    3 Meltdown(s)
    1 Fuel Pool hanging by a thread

    from article:
    "Despite absorbing radioactive iodine isotopes, the California kelp is still not "hot" enough to endanger diners — at least so far as is now known."

    What about Japanese…


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  • nedlifromvermont

    this is all very tragic … yet still far removed from most people's lives around here …

    what was that about no point in having a good idea, if the world's not ready for it …

    so slowly, together, we witness the sad deterioration of our ambient environment, with radioactive hot spots multiplying, and food safety becoming an issue, now pot safety, and we are somehow, collectively become mute to the horrors unleashed in our name … powerless, seemingly, to lend a hand to a land we once loved and admired; which now contaminates us with a death machine even our fathers exported to them, and which should never have been built; and those who allowed it now know it, too, if they still live. More sadly, they knew it even then, but they took the quick payoff, the short term profit, unleashing the nuclear Devil incarnate … and now the cancers, the tumors, the leukemias and the mutations foretell the horror to come …

    and we who seek to share this knowledge are shunned, belittled and drowned out … by a world not yet ready to listen, enthralled as we are by our electrified life style; enslaved as it were; listening to fresh faced youths who can carry a tune or dance in great excitement, while …

    in all our names the nuclear games go on, Goebbel's lessons of mass lies, deceit and cover up run free, to spin the nuclear profits, despite all the protests and truths revealed, the contamination, the hopelessness of clean up, the lives destroyed, capitalism…


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    • What-About-The-Kids

      Well said, NedlifromVermont. I love your writing style. Ever thought about writing a book on the subject? Perhaps a primer for the as of yet uninformed? ;-)


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  • nedlifromvermont

    debased ….


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  • AGreenRoad AGreenRoad

    EFFECTS OF INTERNAL LOW LEVEL NUCLEAR RADIATION

    Chernobyl Heart Movie; How Children Are Affected; via A Green Road Blog
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/chernobyl-heart-movie-how-children-are.html

    How Cesium And Strontium 90 Kills Children (German w English CC) via A Green Road Blog
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/german-how-cesium-and-strontium-90.html

    Depleted Uranium Effects In The Human Body; via A Green Road Blog http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/depleted-uranium-effects-in-human-body.html

    Radium Girls & Radium Dials; Ottowa Illinois, Death City
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/radium-girls-radium-dials-ottowa.html

    How Dangerous Is 400-600 Pounds Of Plutonium Nano Particle Dust Liberated By Fukushima? Via A Green Road Blog http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-dangerous-is-400-600-pounds-of.html

    Nuclear Plants And Radioactive Water Contamination; via A Green Road Blog
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/nuclear-plants-and-radioactive-water.html

    Fukushima; Pacific Ocean Catastrophe Confirmed; via A Green Road Blog
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/fukushima-pacific-ocean-catastrophe.html

    Fukushima Leaking Radioactive Water Into Ocean Plume; via A Green Road Blog
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/fukushima-leaking-radioactive-water.html

    Japan Plans To Evacuate 40 Million Citizens; Russia Shocked; via A Green Road
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/japan-plans-to-evacuate-40-million.html


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  • AGreenRoad AGreenRoad

    Eight iodine rich foods…

    http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/iodine-foods/

    A couple of these I would not partake of right now, but several of them look good…


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  • covelogibbs covelogibbs

    Hmmm, makes me wonder about our abalone here in California. They of course live on a diet of kelp, but grow very slowly, around 1/2 inch per year. Since this mollusk does grow so slowly, wouldn't abalone be "safe" to eat this season? Anyone have any thoughts on this? I don't care to eat abalone myself, but I love to dive for them and give them to my friends, but don't want to if I don't feel confident that they're safe to eat.

    Why Tepco hasn't filled a giant trench with zeolite around Fukushima Daiichi to absorb the radioactive water run-off is beyond me. Tepco should have never been allowed to dump radioactive water into the sea to make room for even more radioactive water. They should have been required to get/buy more storage tanks. Then again Fukushima Daiichi should have never been built in the first place, so dumping radiation into the ocean is par for the course. I suppose we should count our blessings that we so far have avoided the "demonic chain reaction of meltdowns" that almost wiped Toykoyo off the map.

    Business as usual for nuclear power. Truely the only good nukes are NO NUKES.

    Here's a short, :60 second, video I made pre-Fukushima, please watch if you have the time.
    http://current.com/items/87501981_no_nukes


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    • BreadAndButter BreadAndButter

      Hi covelogibbs, good video with important thoughts. Well done!
      What a prophetic comment from one of the users: "Chernobyl style disasters are exceedingly rare and are exceedingly unlikely in any system other than a Soviet style bureaucracy."

      No words.

      Regarding your abalone quation: I have no clue, but if the kelp is contaminated, the water it grows in is contaminated. I personally wouldn't want to eat anything that spends its life in contaminated waters….also, i just read that on average there's 6 parts plastic for each part plancton in the world's seas (up to a 60 to 1 ratio in heavily polluted areas). As mussels filter water….well. Different story :-(


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  • Arizonan Arizonan

    Why in the name of billions of dollar of taxes can't the citizens of California and the US and Japan and Korea get daily reports on exact quantities of exactly which man-made radio-isotopes are present in kelp and seafood in the Pacific?? This seems like it would be simple enough if the EPA, NRC, DOE, labs, and state/country legislatures had the political will to demand it instead of an over-riding political will to ignore, deny and cover up. The original research article only reported on I131 in dry weight kelp from a sample collected in April. This story says it has been "somewhat radioactive" for months. Clearly with the short half-life of I131 that would not be the case by now; so what other isotopes have been tested for, and where is this reporter getting their information? It is probably true, but when I am discussing these things with people (before their eyes glaze over) it helps to have a good strong source for the info I am sharing.


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    • MaidenHeaven MaidenHeaven

      In a report by the Environmental Health News, it has been confirmed that radioactive iodine from the Fukushima nuclear disaster was detected in kelp collected in California’s urban coastline, up to 2.5 becquerel per gram of dry weight – 250-times higher than levels found in kelp before the accident.

      Government monitoring sites in Anaheim (southern California) recorded peak airborne concentrations of I-131 at 1.9 pCi m−3 from a baseline of zero.

      Some radioactive material probably accumulated in fish that eat the kelp – opaleye, halfmoon and senorita.

      “If they were feeding on it, they definitely got dosed. We just don’t know if it was harmful. It’s probably not good for them. http://enformable.com/2012/03/california-kelp-affected-by-fukushima-iodine-may-have-affected-certain-fish-thyroid-systems/

      The scientists only measured iodine 131, although other isotopes were in the plume from Japan that also accumulate in kelp. One of them, Cesium 137, has a 30-year half-life.

      “Kelp forests are some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth,” he said. “I thought this would be an opportunity because one thing about macrocystis is it has a large surface canopy,” which means it is continually exposed to the air – and whatever contaminants are in it.

      In addition, giant kelp concentrates radioactive iodine 10,000-fold – for every one molecule in the water there would be 10,000 in its tissues.


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    • nohobear nohobear

      Seems a simple enough question that we've all asked, but think about it. The intentional disabling of EPA rad monitors back in the first month of the crisis was a clear signal of where things were headed. As is the recent news of the withdrawal of 9000 marines out of Okinawa and Japan.

      If the true extent of the fallout is known, for starters, demand for California's agricultural and seafood products would collapse. Coastal real estate values would also plummet.

      I think the truth is being leaked out intentionally in drips and drabs at this point, to acclimate the citizens of the world to adapting and living life in a post fukushima world. In ten years time, if we survive, the norm will be paying for a cancer supplement rider on our health insurance, paying for imported bottled Libyan aquifer water, and carrying around electronic communication devices, (the iPhone 7, now with iRad™ technology) (that will not only track our movements-oh wait, they do that now) but double as radiation detection devices. And if you can't afford these things, well, tough luck. You're going to die an early and probably painful death as one of Dr. Kissinger's "useless eaters".
      And when it rains, we will be trained to flee and take cover indoors until an All-CLEAR sounds (or we get an instant alert pop-up on our said communication devices).

      Unduly gloomy and dystopian view of the future? Believe me, I wish with all my heart to be proved wrong


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  • SteveMT

    The trash that continues to cover-up Fukushima is the same trash that covers-up this story. The same sheeple that believe that their government must be doing the right thing and that is NOT complicit in this tyranny are the same sheeple that believe the same thing over here. The race of people changes, but their way of acting, thinking, trusting, lying, and mistreating one another is constant. People seem to be alike all over.

    "People Are Alike All Over"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIZ04AGTjHc


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  • norbu norbu

    Good clip spooky…..thanks


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