Luckily there is no health risk from consuming milk with extremely low levels of radiation, like those found in Washington state and California, experts said Thursday, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"When we have a disaster like we've had with a nuclear power plant in Japan, we're probably going to find things that are truly not a public health risk, but I think it's very difficult for the public to assimilate this information and understand the risks," said Dr. Wally Curran, a radiation oncologist and head of Emory University's Winship Cancer Center.
On Wednesday the federal agency said that it would increase its monitoring of radiation in milk, precipitation, drinking water, and other outlets. Results taken from samples of milk in Spokane, Washington, and in San Luis Obispo County, California, detected radioactive iodine, or iodine-131, at a level 5,000 times lower than the limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
At that level, a person would have to drink 1,000 liters of milk to receive the same amount of radiation as a chest X-ray, said Dr. James Cox. The iodine-131 was said to have a half life of about eight days. This is good news. It means that the radiation wont dwell in any biologic system for any significant period of time.
Radiation gets into the milk because it falls on grass eaten by cows. The milk does not itself absorb radiation.
Similarly, the California Department of Public Health reassured residents that the levels do not pose a threat.
Although the California Department of Public Health and many other scientist have said that the levels of radiation in milk do not pose a threat, people have still started to freak out. Families have reduced milk consumption and even products that contain milk. In my opinion I feel like that is taking it a little too far, I do not think reducing milk consumption is necessary because the amount of radiation in the milk is not enough to harm anyone.
What are your opinions? Do you guys think this radiation problem could get worse, and if it does, what would be the smartest thing to do about it?
Thursday, March 31, 2011
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8 comments:
No matter to what extents our government goes to quell fears, people will still freak out. I doubt the radiation problem will get any worse, and the smartest thing to do would probably be to continue buying milk products to prevent any damage from being done to the economy. But then again, people will still freak out.
Hey everyone guess what I just heard! There's arsenic in our water! time to start cutting back on that water otherwise you'll die.
I believe we should educate people better on issues concerning radiation. Most people who are alarmed by the radiation from Japan seem to know only one thing about radiation: radiation = bad. I think the radiation problem has the potential to get worse because nuclear power plants in Japan are damaged and anything can happen which could cause more radiation to be released. But I personally think that it shouldn't be that big of a problem and it seems under control at the moment. I think the best thing to do is put public service announcements to at least attempt to reach to the public and tell them that the radiation has a very low chance of affecting our lives.
I think we live in a nation where the public tends to overreact a lot. Once one snippet of information leaks out, its passed onto another person, and another person, and so on, until everything is blown way out of proportion. That's not to say that the public's worry isn't justified. I can understand why some people "freak out," and go with the whole "better safe than sorry" spiel. Yes, this radiation situation seems pretty minor in my opinion, but that isn't going to stop the people from making it seem like a big issue.
Between people spending extensive amounts of time in tanning beds and using their cell phones like there's no tomorrow, I find it a bit paradoxical that people are so paranoid about this extremely small amount of radiation. However, it's also understandable because it simply sounds scary, and to be honest, stuff that sounds scary, regardless of its actual logical validity, is what really captures most people's imaginations.
Bottom line: Like Aaron said, be scared of water. It will kill you and everyone you know. BE AFRAID.
Hey guess what? Your banana also has radiation! So does everything else in the world! Does that mean that we should stop doing everything?
Well, it seems like people just don't know how much radiation is going to affect them. Funny thing is, that radiation probably won't do a thing, and people freak out far less on far more dangerous things.
And I agree with Tony and Tiffany on this issue.
There's a scary new drug-resistant bacteria in your food. Let's go nuts.
BFD, it is a waste of time.
Someone showed me this cool before and apparently sleeping next to someone releases .05µSv of radiation.
Here is the chart by the way...
http://www.xkcd.com/radiation/
I think people are taking this issue a bit too seriously. The radiation that is present in the affected milk should pose no risk at all to the health of individuals that drink it. Additionally, most people in the United States have eaten food that has been exposed to radiation. Shocking? Not really. Food irradiation is commonly used in the United States to ensure the safety of many consumable products.
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