Community | April 02, 2011 | 15 comments

FDA’s Comparison of Radiation in Milk to Everyday Exposures Called ‘Improper’

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U.S. Food and Drug Administration statement regarding milk contaminated with radiation from Japan failed to accurately inform and educate the public, four watchdog groups and a former senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Energy said today, pointing to the fact that exposure to ingested iodine-131 is substantively different than everyday exposure to radiation in the environment.

On March 30, in response to reports that radioactive iodine-131 has been found in milk in Washington state, FDA senior scientist Patricia Hansen said, “Radiation is all around us in our daily lives, and these findings are a miniscule amount compared to what people experience every day. For example, a person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round trip cross country flight, watching television, and even from construction materials.”

This statement was called improper by experts at Beyond Nuclear, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth andNuclear Information and Resource Service, as well as by Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration.

Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration, said:

“No matter how small the dose might be, it is out of context to compare an exposure to a specific radioisotope that is released by a major nuclear accident with radiation exposures in everyday life. The FDA spokesperson should have informed the public that radioiodine provides a unique form of exposure in that it concentrates rapidly in dairy products and in the human thyroid. The dose received, based on official measurements, may be quite small, and pose an equally small risk. However, making a conclusion on the basis of one measurement is fragmentary at best and unscientific at worst. As the accident in Fukushima continues to unfold, the public should be provided with all measurements made of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima reactors to allow for independent analyses.”

Damon Moglen, Director of the Climate and Energy Project at Friends of the Earth, said:

“This is an apples-to-oranges comparison that lacks integrity. There is a big difference between ingesting radioactive material that accumulates in the thyroid and sitting on an airplane. You can’t drink a TV or eat an airplane.”

Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Specialist at Beyond Nuclear, said:

“It is important to remember that regardless of exposure level, as the National Academies of Science have reported, there is no safe dose of radiation. Children and pregnant mothers are particularly at risk from low-dose, long-term internal exposure.”...

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http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/health-and-fitness/23178-fdas-comparison-of-r...
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15 comments // FDA’s Comparison of Radiation in Milk to Everyday Exposures Called ‘Improper’

  • letsliveinpeace
  • letsliveinpeace
  • letsliveinpeace
    • +1
      letsliveinpeace  
    • in Spokane, Washington. Then they found radiation in milk in San Luis Obispo County, California. Now they have found radiation in milk in Arizona as well. Should we just start assuming that all of our milk is going to have nuclear radiation from Japan in it until further notice? Of course federal authorities insist that the levels of radiation being detected are completely safe and that nobody should start worrying about the milk that they are drinking. In fact that there are even some crackpots out there that are attempting to claim that nuclear radiation from Japan is actually good for us. Yes, let's all run out and guzzle as much of that "nutritious" radioactive milk as we can. Of course it isn't just milk that the radiation is getting into. It is showing up in water supplies from coast to coast and it is inevitable that it is going to get into most of our food products. Not that there is much that we can do about it.

      Hopefully our authorities are right and that the radiation from Japan is not a very serious threat. But having to think twice before drinking a glass of milk is not very comforting.

      Sadly, the nuclear crisis in Japan only seems to be getting worse.

      Hundreds of tons of water a day are being poured into these reactors. All of that very highly radioactive water has to go somewhere. What we are finding out is that in addition to being released into the air as steam, it is also getting into the groundwater at Fukushima and into the ocean off the coast.

      The radiation level in the ocean near the Fukushima nuclear complex was recently measured to be 4,385 times above what is considered normal.

      So what is this going to do to the Japanese seafood industry?

      And what is going to keep that highly radioactive water from circulating all over the Pacific?

      The groundwater under Fukushima is even worse. TEPCO has confirmed that the level of radiation in the groundwater underneath the Fukushima nuclear complex is 10,000 times above the legal limit.

      Ack!

      But of course since Barack Obama (one of the great con men of our generation) has promised that the nuclear radiation being released at Fukushima is "no danger" to the United States we should all be able to sleep really well at night, right?

      Well, I don't know about you, but when I hear that it is being reported that the University of California at Berkeley has found that rainwater in San Francisco contains significant levels of nuclear radiation I start getting a little bit concerned.

      So just how long is this nuclear crisis in Japan going to last?

      Well, there is at least one nuclear expert that claims it will be 50 to 100 years before any of the spent nuclear fuel rods at the Fukushima complex will cool down enough to be removed from the facility.

      So what are they supposed to do for now?

      Well, there are some hints that the Japanese are starting to think about implementing the "Chernobyl solution" and encase the entire area in massive amounts of concrete, but there are also quite a few experts that believe such a solution will not work in this case.

      Hopefully something can be worked out. For the moment, the folks over in Japan will just have to keep pouring massive amounts of water on those buildings. Of course that will continue to create huge amounts of very highly radioactive water that is going to go into the groundwater and into the ocean, but what else are they supposed to do?

      When this crisis initially began, not too many nuclear experts were all that concerned, but now some of them are really sounding the alarm. Just check out the video below....
      Amazingly, U.S. workers are actually being recruited to go over to Japan and work at Fukushima.

      The pay is apparently going to be very good, so those that volunteer could end up with a lot of extra cash.

      They just might not live long enough to spend much of it.

      What a crazy world we live in.

      So far, most of the attention in the mainstream media has been focused on the radioactive iodine-131 that is being released at Fukushima.

      But iodine-131 only has a half-life of about 8 days.

      The radioactive cesium-137 being released at Fukushima could end up being a much larger long-term threat.

      As I wrote about recently, radioactive cesium-137 is being released at 60% of the level that it was being released at during the Chernobyl disaster.

      Considering the fact that Cesium-137 has a half-life of approximately 30 years, that is a very sobering statistic.

      So will cesium-137 be showing up in our water, milk and food for many years to come?

      Most of us would rather not have to worry about that.

      Hopefully the authorities in Japan will find a solution to this crisis very soon. The damage that has already been done has been bad enough.

      The truth is that if this nightmare continues long enough, things could get much, much worse for Japan.

      Residents of Japan were alarmed recently when the government declared that the tap water in Tokyo was not safe for infants to drink. That sparked a massive run on bottled water and it prompted many residents of Tokyo to start bracing for massive radiation exposure.

      One day later, the government in Japan said that the tap water in Tokyo was suddenly completely safe and that caused most people living in Tokyo to settle down a bit.

      However, what is going to happen if at some point the water in Tokyo is deemed unsafe for all humans for an extended period of time?

      There are over 30 million people living in and around Tokyo. You simply cannot evacuate that many people.

      But if it gets to the point where Tokyo residents cannot drink the water, bathe in the water or use the water to prepare food, what in the world are they supposed to do?

      Without water, life becomes very difficult very quickly. Just try it some time. Take one day and try to get through it without using any water. You will quickly find out how precious water is.

      If we ever do get to the point where some or all of Tokyo must be evacuated, that is going to be an absolutely devastating blow to Japan and to the global economy. Let us hope that it does not happen.

      But the truth is that if I had been living in Tokyo I would have gotten out of there already. This nuclear disaster at Fukushima is rapidly becoming worse than Chernobyl. The health impact of this nuclear nightmare is going to last for decades, and one can only imagine how many people will eventually develop cancer and other illnesses as a result of all this.

      So what do all the rest of you think about all of this? Should we be concerned about radiation in milk? Should the residents of Tokyo be preparing for the worst? Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qN3B-KjZ7vk

    • 1 year ago
  • letsliveinpeace
  • letsliveinpeace
    • 0
      letsliveinpeace  
    • Federal regulators have found extremely low levels of Iodine-131 in a sample of milk taken from Spokane — the first time radiation likely from the Japanese nuclear disaster has been found in food in the United States.

      But health experts said consumers need not worry.

      The sample, taken March 25, remained 5,000 times below levels of concern set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), even for infants.

      In fact, the amount of radiation in the sample was tens of thousands of times lower than what one might be exposed to during a round-trip cross-country flight, said Patricia Hansen, a senior scientist with the FDA.

      In addition, Iodine 131 also has a short half-life — about eight days — so health officials expect radiation levels to drop off quickly.

      "The amount we're talking about is minuscule," said Mary Selecky, secretary of the Washington Department of Health.

      Selecky said that radiation showed up in samples from a bulk-milk station in Spokane before anywhere else is probably just chance; the Spokane sample was the first to be tested at an EPA laboratory, she said.

      The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has increased its regular monitoring of radiation in rainwater and milk in expectation that minute amounts of radiation traveling through the atmosphere will make its way to the United States.

      The agency is monitoring milk, in particular, because it's one of the most common ways humans can be exposed to Iodine-131, which will fall in rain and gets deposited in soil and readily attaches to leafy vegetation. That vegetation then is eaten by cows.

      In far higher doses, Iodine-131 can be a culprit in thyroid cancers and associated diseases.

      It is the same substance secretly released in massive quantities by the Hanford nuclear reservation in 1949's notorious "Green Run." The impact of that release and others are at the heart of suits still being waged by a generation of people who lived downwind of Hanford who are or have been afflicted with various

    • 1 year ago
  • letsliveinpeace
  • ThatCrazyLibertarian
  • letsliveinpeace
  • ghostofamerica
    • +2
      ghostofamerica  
    • no argument about the improper comparison, but there is an entry in the guinness book of world records about a guy who ate an airplane and several tv's

    • 1 year ago
  • CalPal
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • People really need to study and understand radiation better!
      We have no problem when our dentist x-rays our teeth every year.
      We have no problem talking on cell phones bouncing billions of radioactive microwaves through the atmosphere (and our bodies) every second of every day and night.
      An no one is talking about the much bigger problem of coal ash containing more radiation than nuclear waste or gas fracking water.
      The hysteria and ignorance surrounding this subject is astounding!

    • 1 year ago
  • TasteHi
  • SoCalFramer
  • artemis6
  • treewolf39
    • 0
      treewolf39  
    • SoCalFramer:

      And you may further conclude that it will not be getting better until they stop the radioactive release. The rain is tainted, but what is really going to get us is the amount of time this inevitable accident takes to stop. Rachel reported last night that America is sending concrete pump trucks (the largest in the world ) to help spray water on the exposed rods in an attempt to keep them cool and keep humans as far away as possible.

    • 1 year ago
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