USA’s Aerial Radiological Survey – testing radiation levels in the atmosphere

Now You Know: That Thing in the Sky is Testing for Radiation, Seattlest 13 July 11 If you’ve recently spied a startlingly low-flying beast in the sky, don’t worry–it’s not Google trying to get a more recent photo of your back yard, and it’s not a search party looking for bad guys in your neighborhood. It’s just trying to get a read on how much radiation you might exposed to.

Yesterday, the Washington State Department of Health launched the Aerial Radiological Survey for King and Piece Counties. The survey, which is being conducted by a helicopter that flies in a grid pattern at about 300 feet above the ground, will last until July 28. It is being funded by the Department of Homeland Security, and can “detect the presence of radioactive materials that emit gamma radiation such as cesium and radioactive iodine.” The goal of the project is to establish a radiation baseline–that is, how much radiation each area is exposed to right now, in a time of normal levels.

The project, says the DOH, has been in the works since 2009. But, we imagine, since the Fukushima nuclear disaster across the pond in Japan, the information being gathered is more critical than they could have predicted. Having a baseline for what is “normal” will be massively helpful in the future, when determining what is dangerous, and what is abnormal….http://seattlest.com/2011/07/12/now_you_know_that_thing_in_the_sky.php

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July 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, technology, USA

1 Comment »

Ah let me get this straight. They want to get a baseline for radioactivity now? After Fukushima? Sorry. Sounds like more cover up homework to sell us on this being normal and not the biggest man made disaster ever in recorded history. The rain in Lake Louise Alberta, Canada is reading at 2.43 mSv/hr ! That is way beyond dangerous and certainly not normal. I hope I just read this incorrectly and that they are actually going to use the results before Fukushima to compare with after Fukushima and not bundle in the radiation we are currently receiving from the ongoing Fukushima disaster into the “normal” baseline reading.

Sorry the media black out on this is very annoying and disrespectful to all. (see the Guardian in the UK)(although not unprecedented…same thing for Three Mile Island and Chernobyl ) This just looks like another case of CYA by the American government. Why else would the EPA raise the limits of tolerable radiation up to in some cases by 100,000 times right after Fukushima?

What am I going to do about it? What can I do? Bend over I guess and eventually fall over from cancer like everyone else.

Comment by Mary | August 3, 2011 | Reply