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Trade winds and Pacific currents bring Fukushima radiation to North America

Fukushima Radiation Hitting Canada and United States More than Japan http://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/fukushima-radiation-hitting-canada-and-united-states-more-than-japan-209/ Oct 8, 2013

ForbiddenKnowledgeTV
Alexandra Bruce
October 5, 2013

Besides the billions of gallons of radioactive water spilling from the abandoned Fukushima Nuclear Energy Plant every day, there is also a steady plume of radio nuclides including Cesium, Cobalt, Uranium and Plutonium, which are steadily being carried across the Pacific via trade winds, with the lion’s share landing (usually, along with the rain) in communities within the US and Canada – and in places beyond, throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Ironically, more fallout is presently occurring in North America than in Japan, the scene of the disaster, due to the trade winds, off the Japanese coast.

It has been calculated that in 1 day, there are 666,733.717599549 bequerels of radiation emitted in every cubic foot of the Pacific, per mile.

There are about 63,800,000 miles in the Pacific Ocean. The average depth is about 2.28 miles. There are 145,464,000 cubic miles in the Pacific Ocean. Cesium-137 has a double decay process 94.6% of the time; first beta rays, then gamma rays.

So each cubic foot of the entire Pacific Ocean will have 218.174056838937 Beta radiation events per day and each cubic foot of the entire Pacific Ocean will have 206.392657769635 Gamma radiation events per day.

34 is the average background radiation of the N. American continent.

The Pacific Ocean will have a “radiation fog” in every cubic foot of water that is 12.47 times HIGHER than the average background radiation count of North American continent.

Sea life will be affected in some manner; perhaps all fish will get cancer. The impact on humanity is a shortage in sea food and no swimming allowed until radiation levels abate to a “safe level”… in about how long???

October 10, 2013 Posted by | NORTH AMERICA, oceans, radiation, Resources -audiovicual | 1 Comment

Fukushima’s small level of radiation in fish can still cause cancers

radiation-in-sea--food-chaithe radiation detected can still cause cancer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cancer-risk formula, a leading international standard for forecasting cancer risks from radiation. 

Cancer risk linked to radiation levels in fish species after Fukushima http://www.straight.com/life/497651/cancer-risk-linked-radiation-levels-fish-species-after-fukushima

by ALEX ROSLIN on OCT 2, 2013 TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS AFTER Fukushima, many fish species still have highly elevated amounts of radioactive cesium from the stricken plant, including species that Japan exports to Canada, according to the Japanese Fisheries Agency’s tests on fish catches.
 And Japanese fish and seafood exports to Canada have grown significantly since Fukushima, with $24 million in exports in 2012, up 20 percent from $20 million in 2010, according to Statistics Canada data.

In July this year, a sea bass caught in Japan had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium—10 times Japan’s ceiling of 100 becquerels per kilo in food. It was the second-highest amount found in a sea bass since the disaster occurred. Continue reading →

October 4, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013, oceans, radiation | Leave a comment

Pennsylvania water has dangerous levels of radiation due to fracking

Dangerous levels of radiation from fracking found in PA water-radiationwater http://www.salon.com/2013/10/02/dangerous_levels_of_radiation_from_fracking_found_in_pa_water/singleton/  Researchers found 200 times the normal amount of radium downstream of a treatment plant BY  The wastewater released into a Pennsylvania river from a plant that processes fracking wastewater tested positive positive for dangerous contaminants — including radium levels elevated 200 times above normal — Duke University researchers found.

“The radioactivity levels we found in sediments near the outflow are above management regulations in the U.S. and would only be accepted at a licensed radioactive disposal facility,” Robert B. Jackson, one of the researchers, said in a statement.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, compared water and sediment samples from downstream of the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility, located on western Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale formation, to samples from above the plant. In addition to the extreme levels of radium, it also found two to ten times the amoung of chlorides and bromides in the downstream samples. As Smithsonian Magazine notes, Pennsylvania hosts 74 facilities that treat the radioactive water driven to the surface by fracking. Ostensibly, they’re supposed to remove radium and other contaminants from the water before releasing it into rivers and streams. No national standards, however, exist to regulate the plants, many of which, according to the EPA, “are not properly equipped to treat this type of wastewater.” They’re also not required to test to radiation — so until the Duke researchers stepped in, it’s likely no one was aware of just how poorly this plant was performing.

“Each day, oil and gas producers generate 2 billion gallons of wastewater,” Jackson told Climate Central. “They produce more wastewater than hydrocarbons. That’s the broader implication of this study. We have to do something with this wastewater.”

October 4, 2013 Posted by | radiation, water | Leave a comment

Breast cancer patients do better with shorter radiation treatments

Breast cancer patients are given unnecessary doses of radiation therapy Information Daily , October 1, 2013   For the first time, researchers have admitted that shorter radiotherapy treatments may be as effective as longer treatments, with fewer side effects.

Scientists have found that longer bouts of radiotherapy are overcompensating for cancer cell growth that occurs overnight and during weekends, causing unnecessary and uncomfortable side effects……..

overall they found that an even shorter one-week radiotherapy schedule could replace the contemporary five to seven week schedules – and could even trump the newly popular three week schedule.

Overall, it is clear that clinicans support this move, arguing that shorter treatment schedules would be more convenient for patients, with benefits including fewer trips to the hospital, and also highly cost-effective for health services.

President of ECCO, Professor Cornelis van de Velde, explained that “this is important research that suggests that the overall treatment time with radiotherapy could make a difference to outcomes for women with early breast cancer”.

“If further investigations confirm that a shorter radiotherapy schedule is as effective as the current standard of care, it will be another step towards making treatments easier and more bearable for patients, and possibly cheaper for healthcare services”.

Lead author, Prof Yarnold, added that, “if confirmed, it means that current trends to deliver shorter radiotherapy schedules are likely to bear fruit in the future”.

However, she emphasised that “current schedules delivered over five weeks or more remain highly effective, and patients should follow recommendations from their specialists”. http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2013/10/01/breast-cancer-patients-are-given-unnecessary-doses-of-radiation-therapy

October 1, 2013 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, radiation, women | Leave a comment

International concern as USA bans food and fish imports from irradiated areas of Japan

plate-radiationFDA Import Alert: U.S. bans agricultural and fishery products from 14 prefectures in Japan due to Fukushima radionuclides — Top Newspaper: Concern over contamination is spreading to most countries around Pacific http://enenews.com/fda-import-alert-u-s-bans-japans-agricultural-and-fishery-products-from-14-prefectures-due-to-fukushima-radionuclides-concern-over-contamination-is-spreading-to-most-countries-around-pacific

Dong-A Ilbo, Sept. 28, 2013 (Korea’s top newspaper): […] Concerns over Japan’s radioactive contamination and its seafood is spreading to most countries in the flag-japanPacific basin. The United States has recently banned agricultural and fishery imports from 14 prefectures in Japan, up from eight. South Korea puts a similar ban on fishery imports from eight prefectures, while China and Taiwan does so for 10 and five prefectures, respectively. [… The IAEA’s] upcoming probe needs to shed light on the cause and situation of soil and sea water contamination. […] It would be much better if experts from South Korea, the United States and China participate in the investigation. It is natural for a global organization to intervene in an international issue. […] Continue reading →

September 30, 2013 Posted by | environment, Fukushima 2013, Japan, radiation | 4 Comments

Large area received Fukushima radiation fallout

Textbook: Fukushima disaster contaminated the territory of Japan, Sea of Japan, Korea — Up to 8 orders of magnitude above global fallout background off prefecture’s coast http://enenews.com/book-fukushima-contaminated-japan-sea-of-japan-korean-peninsula-cesium-137-up-to-8-orders-of-magnitude-above-global-fallout-background-in-coastal-seawater
 September 28th, 2013_
 Title: Fukushima Accident: Radioactivity Impact on the Environment
Source: Elsevier
Authors: Pavel P. Povinec, Katsumi Hirose, Michio Aoyama
Date: July 9, 2013
Emphasis Added

Apart from the contamination of the Japanese territory (Hirose, 2012; Kanai, 2012; Tanaka et al., 2012), the Japan Sea (Inoue et al., 20I2a), and the Korean Peninsula (Hernandez-Ceballos et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2012), due to prevailing western winds, the radionuclides emitted to the atmosphere were mainly transported from Fukushima over the Pacific Ocean (Kamenik et al., 2013) […]

[…] large quantities of radioactive materials released to the atmosphere and coastal waters following a nuclear accident at the Fukushirna Dai-ichi NPP increased considerably the Cs-137 concentrations in coastal seawater off Fukushima up to eight orders of magnitude above the global fallout background (TEPCO, 2012; MEXT, 2012).
Portions of the book available here

September 30, 2013 Posted by | ASIA, environment, radiation, Reference | Leave a comment

Cloud of radioactive iodine reaches France, from Fukushima

text ionisingFukushima Doom Confirmed? France Hit By Iodine-131 Cloud While New Radiation Plume Expected To Hit West Coast Of America On Tuesday http://revolutionradio.org/?p=58394, September 22, 2013 By Paul Martin  A cloud of Iodine-131 has reached France while the recent 5.3 Fukushima earthquake is sending a new radiation plume around the world according to a recent story from Bobby1′sBlog. This latest plume is expected to arrive on the West Coast of America on Tuesday, September 24th. With radiation now spreading across the entire Northern hemisphere and no end in sight, are we reaching the ‘beginning of the end’? Two videos below confirm the severity of this ongoing doomsday situation.

An earthquake that rocked Japan just south of the Fukushima area shortly after midnight on September 20 (Japan time) sent a new plume of radiation across the Pacific Ocean. Apparently radiation measurements in this area have temporarily spiked.

This new plume would arrive on the west coast around Tuesday, Sept. 24. Previous earthquakes have also generated plumes. I remember that the one that arrived after the Jan. 1, 2012 quake was really nasty.

In a previous discussion Iodine-131 from latest criticality it was noted that the iodine spike in Chiba prefecture sludge was deposited in the period August 7 through August 20. According to CRIIRAD, Montélimar, France had spikes in alpha and beta atmospheric radiation on September 4-7. Rhône river water in Avignon showed a spike in iodine-131 on Sept. 7. The iodine cloud must have widened and dispersed quite a bit in its journey across the northern hemisphere… and 75% or more of it would have decayed by the time it reached France. So it must have been quite a substantial radioactive cloud.

Fukushima not only affects Japan, but the Pacific ocean, North America, and Europe too. Australia has had average radiation levels increase substantially, also.

September 23, 2013 Posted by | environment, France, radiation | 9 Comments

Ionising radiation is dangerous -that doesn’t prove that electromagnetic radiation is safe!

Doctors weigh in on dangers of Wi-Fi signal exposure http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/23465182/doctors-weigh-in-on-the-dangers-of-radiation-exposure Sep 18, 2013  

 by Shannon Moore LAS VEGAS (FOX5) – Internet and cell phone companies have told us for years that their products are safe, yet some doctors said they believe otherwise.

Doctor Harold Naiman of Healthcare Partners Nevada said there are several potential dangers when it comes to using your laptop, iPad, tablet or other handheld devices like smart phones, explaining how these devices emit microwave radiation.

“This exposure is especially threatening to our children because of their developing brains and thinner skulls,” Naiman said. “We know that their heads are bigger than adults, relatively speaking, and are less dense so transmission can be increased, plus there’s a lot of brain marrow there.”

Naiman said studies have shown exposure can interfere with development, cause infertility in males and even contribute to memory loss and degenerative diseases like cancer. Continue reading →

September 19, 2013 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, radiation | 2 Comments

Call on America’s EPA to withdraw its weakened guidelines on ionising radiation

radiation-warningMore than 100 Groups Call on EPA to Withdraw Dramatically Weakened Radiation Guides http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science/science-a-environmental/46251-more-than-100-groups-call-on-epa-to-withdraw-dramatically-weakened-radiation-guides.html   2013 WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–September 16 – Over 100 environmental organizations today called on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy to withdraw EPA’s controversial new Protective Action Guides (PAGs), which would allow exposure to very high doses from radiation releases before government would take action to protect the public. The PAGs are intended to guide the response to nuclear power reactor accidents (like Fukushima in Japan, Chernobyl in Ukraine and Three Mile Island in the U.S.), “dirty bomb” explosions, radioactive releases from nuclear fuel and weapons facilities, nuclear transportation accidents, and other radioactive releases.

Although official estimates of health risks from radiation have gone up substantially (even higher for women) since promulgation of the old PAGs, the new EPA guidance contemplates radically increased “allowable” exposures in the intermediate and long-term periods after radiation releases.
The new PAGs

  • propose five options for drinking water which would dramatically increase the permitted concentrations of radioactivity in drinking water, by as much as 27,000 times, compared to EPA’s current Safe Drinking Water Act limits;
  • suggest markedly relaxing long-term cleanup standards;
  • incorporate very high and outdated allowable food contamination levels;
  • eliminate requirements to evacuate people threatened with high projected radiation doses to the thyroid and skin;
    • eliminate limits on lifetime whole body doses; and
    • recommend dumping radioactive waste in municipal garbage dumps not designed for such waste.

    “Rather than requiring protective actions to limit public radiation exposures, EPA is now saying it would allow the public to be exposed to doses far higher than ever before considered acceptable,” said Daniel Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap.

    “Even though EPA now admits radiation is more harmful than previously thought, it is weakening rather than tightening radiation protections,” said Diane D’Arrigo of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

    The full letter is at http://committeetobridgethegap.org/GroupPAGltr9-16-13.pdf

    ###
    NIRS/WISE is the information and networking center for people and organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues.Source: commondreams.org

September 17, 2013 Posted by | politics, radiation, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Ionising radiation causes a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer

BREAST-CANCERExposing young girls to ionizing radiation can raise risk of breast cancer later in life   http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130912/Exposing-young-girls-to-ionizing-radiation-can-raise-risk-of-breast-cancer-later-in-life.aspx  12 Sept 13, Exposing young women and girls under the age of 20 to ionizing radiation can substantially raise the risk of their developing breast cancer later in life. Scientists may now know why. A collaborative study, in which Berkeley Lab researchers played a pivotal role, points to increased stem cell self-renewal and subsequent mammary stem cell enrichment as the culprits. Breasts enriched with mammary stem cells as a result of ionizing irradiation during puberty show a later-in-life propensity for developing ER negative tumors – cells that do not have the estrogen receptor. Estrogen receptors – proteins activated by the estrogen hormone – are critical to the normal development of the breast and other female sexual characteristics during puberty.

“Our results are in agreement with epidemiology studies showing that radiation-induced human breast cancers are more likely to be ER negative than are spontaneous breast cancers,” says Sylvain Costes, a biophysicist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). “This is important because ER negative breast cancers are less differentiated, more aggressive, and often have a poor prognosis compared to the other breast cancer subtypes.” Continue reading →

September 14, 2013 Posted by | health, radiation, Reference, women | 3 Comments

Radiation protection measures for female astronauts seen as DISCRIMINATION !!

exclamation-Flag-USASpace radiation concerns holding back female astronauts, they say NBC News, Miriam Kramer, 31 Aug 13, “……….Depending on when you fly a space mission, a female will fly only 45 to 50 percent of the missions that a male can fly,” Peggy Whitson, the former chief of NASA’s Astronaut Corps, said. “That’s a pretty confining limit in terms of opportunity. I know that they are scaling the risk to be the same, but the opportunities end up causing gender discrimination based on just the total number of options available for females to fly. (That’s) my perspective.” [Radiation Threat for Mars-Bound Astronauts (Video)]……..

“I think that the current standards are too confining for exposure limits based on my personal experience and because I think it limits careers more than it is necessary,” Whitson said during an Institute of Medicine Workshop on Ethics Principles and Guidelines for Health Standards for Long Duration and Exploration Class Spaceflights requested by NASA on July 25.

“In my case, if I had a Y chromosome, I would be qualified,” Whitson added. “Because I have two X’s, I’m not.”…. http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space-radiation-concerns-holding-back-female-astronauts-8C11043076

August 31, 2013 Posted by | civil liberties, radiation, USA, women | Leave a comment

low-dose ionizing radiation’s higher cancer risk for women

Cancer risk found higher in women exposed to low-dose ionizing radiation than men, Healio.com,  Lawler PR. Am J Cardiol. 2013;doi:10/1016/j.amjcard.2013.07.009.  August 29, 2013 Women exposed to low-dose ionizing radiation after an acute MI were more susceptible to cancer than men, according to new study data. Patrick R. Lawler, MD, of McGill University Health Center and the Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues previously found a linkage between the low-dose ionizing radiation from cardiac imaging and therapeutic procedures and an increased risk for cancer. They sought to further this linkage by identifying the specific risks for women and younger patients……..

after adjusting for age and noncardiac radiation, women were more likely to develop cancer for each mSv of exposure (HR=1.005; 95% CI, 1.002-1.008) than men (HR=1.002; 95% CI, 1.001-1.004; P=.014). Women were more likely to have cancer of the thorax, whereas hematologic cancer rates were higher in men.

The increased incidence of cancer found in women “may relate to relatively smaller body sizes for the same amount of radiation,” the researchers wrote.

Despite these findings, the researchers noted that the RRs for cancer incidence were small.

“We and others have shown that [low-dose radiation ionizing radiation] incurred after MI is primarily comprised of therapeutic procedures with known clinical benefit,” the researchers wrote. “Indeed, the benefits of many medical procedures likely outweigh the potential risks, and clinicians should be very wary of deferring useful interventions for the fear of [low-dose radiation ionizing radiation] risk, doing so only when procedures are truly unnecessary or when alternative non-[low-dose radiation ionizing radiation]-emitting technology is available.”http://www.healio.com/cardiology/intervention/news/online/%7Ba76cf3db-a740-44e5-af92-c68086348df5%7D/cancer-risk-found-higher-in-women-exposed-to-low-dose-ionizing-radiation-than-men

August 30, 2013 Posted by | radiation, USA, women | Leave a comment

Strontium 90, another radioactive element discharging from Fukushima nuclear mess

Since June 2011 there have been further large discharges of strontium from Fukushima that have not been measured with precision. 

Along with caesium-137, Sr-90 is one of the most important artificial radioactive isotopes released into the environment, with a half-life of 30 years. Strontium’s chemical behaviour is similar to that of calcium, and it can accumulate in organisms, especially in bone.

Fukushima accident raised levels of radioactive strontium off the east coast of Japan by up to a hundred times  : http://phys.org/news/2013-06-fukushima-accident-radioactive-strontium-east.html#jCp       Researchers from the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and the Department of Physics of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have studied the spread of radioactive strontium in the coastal waters of eastern Japan during the three months following the Fukushima nuclear accident, which happened in March, 2011. The samples analysed show the impact of the direct release of radioactive materials into the Pacific Ocean, and indicate that the amount of strontium-90 discharged into the sea during those three months was between 90 and 900 Tbq (terabecquerels), raising levels by up to two orders of magnitude. The highest concentrations were found to the north of the Kuroshio current, which acts as a barrier preventing radioactive material from being carried to lower latitudes. Continue reading →

August 29, 2013 Posted by | Japan, oceans, radiation, Reference | Leave a comment

Huge radiation: Estimated 276 quadrillion Bq of Cs-137 entered Fukushima basements

Water with nuclear fuel coming up from ocean floor off Fukushima coast? Tokyo Professor: 156 quadrillion Bq of Cs-137 once in basements — Double Chernobyl; Getting close to total fallout from every atomic bomb test in history — May be outputting from seeps in seafloor, I don’t know (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/water-with-pieces-of-nuclear-fuel-coming-up-from-ocean-floor-off-fukushima-coast-tokyo-professor-156-quadrillion-bq-of-cs-137-in-basements-getting-close-to-fallout-total-from-every-atomic-bombs-t

Title: Long-term Sources: To what extent are marine sediments, coastal groundwater, and rivers a source of ongoing contamination?
Source: Science Symposium at University of Tokyo
Date: Nov. 13, 2012

Professor Jota Kanda, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology:

Jota Kanda Highlight – Science Symposium at University of Tokyo

In the basement of the reactor housings […] they used to have 156 petabecquerels of Cs-137 […]

156 is a huge amount. Double the amount released from Chernobyl, even getting close to the value released from global fallout from bomb testing. […

The volume remains about the same, presumably because of the inflow of groundwater into the basement.

If there is inputting of groundwater, there might be outputting of groundwater, I don’t know.

The possible groundwater seepage from near by seafloor — that’s something I think. However we have no data indicative of this seep from the seafloor.

Watch Kanda’s presentation here

See also:

August 28, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013, Japan, radiation, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Radiation cancer danger greater for female astronauts than for men

The exposure limits for women are about 20 percent lower compared to men “largely due to additional cancer risk for woman from breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers,

BREAST-CANCERFemale Astronauts Face Discrimination from Space Radiation Concerns, Astronauts Say, Space.com by Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer   |   August 27, 2013 Female astronauts have fewer opportunities to fly in space than men partially because of strict lifetime radiation exposure restrictions, astronauts say.

Both male and female astronauts are not allowed to accumulate a radiation dose that would increase their lifetime risk of developing fatal cancer by more than 3 percent. A six-month mission on the International Space Station exposes astronauts to about 40 times the average yearly dose of background radiation that a person would receive living on Earth, NASA spokesman William Jeffs said in an email.

While the level of risk allowed for both men and women in space is the same, women have a lower threshold for space radiation exposure than men, according to physiological models used by NASA. “Depending on when you fly a space mission, a female will fly only 45 to 50 percent of the missions that a male can fly,” Peggy Whitson, the former chief of NASA’s Astronaut Corps, said. “That’s a pretty confining limit in terms of opportunity. I know that they are scaling the risk to be the same, but the opportunities end up causing gender discrimination based on just the total number of options available for females to fly. [That’s] my perspective.” [Radiation Threat for Mars-Bound Astronauts (Video)]

NASA follows radiation exposure recommendations established by the National Council of Radiation Protection and Measurements. The exposure limits for women are about 20 percent lower compared to men “largely due to additional cancer risk for woman from breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers,” Jeffs told SPACE.com……..

“Depending on when you fly a space mission, a female will fly only 45 to 50 percent of the missions that a male can fly,” Peggy Whitson, the former chief of NASA’s Astronaut Corps, said. “That’s a pretty confining limit in terms of opportunity. I know that they are scaling the risk to be the same, but the opportunities end up causing gender discrimination based on just the total number of options available for females to fly. [That’s] my perspective.” [Radiation Threat for Mars-Bound Astronauts (Video)]

NASA follows radiation exposure recommendations established by the National Council of Radiation Protection and Measurements. The exposure limits for women are about 20 percent lower compared to men “largely due to additional cancer risk for woman from breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers,” Jeffs told SPACE.com…… http://www.space.com/22252-women-astronauts-radiation-risk.html

August 28, 2013 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, radiation, Reference, women | Leave a comment

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