Published: April 20th, 2011 at 12:27 pm ET
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UC Santa Cruz nuclear expert warns of possible meltdowns, San Jose Mercury News, April 20, 2011:
… [Daniel] Hirsch, a renowned expert on nuclear policy often quoted by major media outlets, spoke at the Stevenson College Event Center on the tragedy at the Fukushima plant and how the U.S. can prevent a similar meltdown at its 104 nuclear reactors, including the two in California. …
Hirsch warned that a decades-old study estimated that a meltdown at the Southern California nuclear plant in Onofre could release enough radiation to immediately kill 130,000 people, cause cancer to 300,000 and genetic defects in 600,000 more.
“Every amount of radiation exposure increases your risk of cancer,” he said. “There is no safe level of radiation.” …
Read the report here.
Published: April 20th, 2011 at 12:27 pm ET
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Since we know there will be ongoing low-dose exposure no matter where we go, I suggest we all take control of the only thing we can: our health. Become educated on how to reduce your exposure, cut out dairy products, eat whole fresh fruits and veg full of antioxidants, exercise. There are many things you CAN do to strengthen your body. Then, I suggest people learn how to grow some of their own food, even if they only start with one vegetable container garden this summer. Plant some fruit and nut trees on your property, berry bushes, etc. Be as prepared as you can for environmental emergencies while not living your life in a paranoid panic that clouds your judgment. Seek the facts, test assumptions, and don’t make wild leaps to crazy conclusions.
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Here is the huge 2006 National Academy of Sciences study to back up what you say:
HEALTH RISKS FROM EXPOSURE TO LOW LEVELS OF IONIZING RADIATION
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11340&page=R1
Conclusion of this 400 page study:
“The committee concludes that the current scientific evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a linear, no-threshold dose-response relationship between exposure to ionizing radiation and the development of cancer in humans.”
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11340&page=323
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Dear God,
I was going to plant a garden, but I’m concerned about the radioactive fallout in the rain. Last night I was outside for about an hour, after it was raining. And after I came back inside I started feeling like I had been out in the sun. But since it was still dark outside, the radiation that caused it couldn’t have been solar. Hopefully I’m just being paranoid (It’s very possible I’m just imagining this, so I wouldn’t rule out paranoia at this point). But if there’s enough external radiation to give me a mild “sunburn” after about an hour of exposure. I’m thinking there could be a significant amount of radioactive particles that could get taken up by fruits and vegetables, growing in an outdoor garden. My understanding is that leafy vegetables are the worst. That would make sense, because they have the largest surface area to volume ratio, for collecting fallout. And they’re pretty efficient at absorbing stuff. Fruits may not be too bad, at least for the particular isotopes I read about. But I’m not sure about other isotopes. Beans may take up a lot of cesium. Which really sucks, because I grew some really good beans last year. And strontium is taken up similar to calcium (whatever effects that will have, I’m not sure of yet). I’m all for getting more people to plant gardens. But this season, with all the radiation floating around in the atmosphere, just waiting to fall out with the rain, I’m not sure what the best thing to do is.
So please God, give me a sign to let me know what to do.
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EVERYTHING HE IS SAYING WE DO GO HERE AND FIND ALL INFO NEEDED
http://www.thesandmanproject.com/home.htm
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EVERYTHING HE IS SAYING WE DO GO HERE AND FIND ALL INFO NEEDED IF YOU NEED INFO IT IS HERE ALL OF IT>
http://www.thesandmanproject.com/home.htm
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You could grow in containers inside a hoop house using uncontaminated soil. But you are right–there is no way to completely escape it. We will be watering with contaminated water. My advice about growing food was more about becoming less dependent than it was about growing uncontaminated food. It’s got to be horrible for organic farmers to think about, but we have yet to see how bad it gets and for how long.
But to worry about radiation’s effects on your chance of getting cancer without addressing other areas of your life that compromise your health is silly. We are exposed to a lot of carcinogens in our daily life. I’m sure there are many out there who are morbidly obese on junk food diets and yet they are worried about radiation.
I don’t have an answer about eating things like leafy greens. That’s very interesting about the beans–is there a site for such information? I’m interested in learning what I can about the levels we will be exposed to in our food.
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I agree we need to limit our dependence, and that’s one of the main reasons I garden. The other is, I want healthy food, and I don’t like eating pesticides. My garden is pretty large (more like a small farm) so containers aren’t an option this year. And I don’t have a hoop house. So for this season I’m weighing the risks of pre-accident grocery store food vs possibly radioactive homegrown food.
I’ve just been picking up bits of information on the web about the uptake of particular isotopes. One article I found useful was posted by Mothra in a different thread here:
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/137/
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At the risk of being repetitive:
“Every amount of radiation exposure increases your risk of cancer,” he said. “There is no safe level of radiation.”
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