Government Under Fire as Radiation Is Found in Milk, Rain

"We have accelerated our precipitation and drinking water sampling and expect to have results in the coming days," EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said in a statement.

The EPA’s tardy response to widespread alarm about radiation in rain and the air has been sharply criticized by Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"It’s troubling that the EPA has to date not provided any precipitation data of its own, while measurements that have been made by states and others across the country are indicating somewhat surprising elevations of iodine-131,” Hirsch said Friday.

A rooftop water monitoring program managed by UC Berkeley’s Department of Nuclear Engineering detected substantial spikes in rain-borne iodine-131 during torrential downpours a week ago.

As shown in the graph below, published by UC Berkeley, Iodine-131 peaked at 20.1 becquerels per liter, a measure of radioactivity, on the roof of Etcheverry Hall during heavy rains a week ago. The federal maximum level of iodine-131 allowed in drinking water is 0.111 becquerels per liter.



The levels exceeded federal drinking water thresholds, known as maximum contaminant levels, or MCL, by as much as 181 times. However, the material has a half-life of eight days, meaning it breaks down quickly, and it quickly dissipates in the environment. Drinking water safety standards are based on prolonged exposures.

"Now, it isn't drinking water, and the MCL can be averaged for a period of up to a year," Hirsch said. "But it is striking that rainwater could be measured in Berkeley with radioiodine that is that far above the level you would generally be permitted to drink."

The material, which is one of the most toxic radioactive elements spewed when nuclear power plants melt down, is being ingested by cows, which are passing it through into their milk.

The UC Berkeley researchers also discovered trace levels of iodine-131 and other radioactive materials believed to have originated in Japan in commercially available milk and in a local stream.

Low levels of ioidine-131 were detected by state officials this week in milk harvested from San Luis Obispo. Milk from that region is tested frequently for radioactive material because its located near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

“It’s absolutely no public health risk,” California Department of Public Health spokesman Mike Sicilia said.

Similar readings have been reported in milk from Spokane, Washington.

Additionally, EPA air monitoring stations have detected airborne radioactive material believed to have blown across the Pacific Ocean from Japan at levels that federal officials insist are harmless.

http://www.baycitizen.org/japan-disaster...on-milk/1/

Considering the fact that the EPA considered the airborne pollution after the 9/11 attacks to be harmless, I'd suggest taking your potassium iodide if you live on the west coast.