What is the cumulative effect?
Since you have published data from the rain water/air measurements for each of the particular dates, I wonder what would be cumulative effect of radioactive material accumulation in air and water over a period of time, say, over the next 3 to 4 weeks, if the reactors continue to emit radiation.
Please elaborate. Appreciate your effort in calming my nerves.
At this point we can only
At this point we can only come up with very conservative estimates based on our numbers. Rain water will be diluted with other water for form our tap water, produce (vegetables) will only uptake a small portion of the rain water, cows will eat the grass which may or may not concentrate things. These are not easily quantifiable effects. However, we have come up with a conservative cumulative dose of ~1mrem or 0.01 mSv. This is calculated primarily from our estimates from radioiodine (I-131). This dose is 1/400th of the natural dose we get every year. It is 1/3 of the dose we get from a flight across the country. This is also about the additional dose if you spend a week in Colorado.
Hopefully, this fact makes you feel better: We are exposed everyday to radiation and the differences we experience as we move from place to place, fly around the country, eat more or less bananas, ..., is actually a much greater amount we are calculating. There has never been any proven health effects from these types of changes in levels. On the other hand, we know that anxiety can cause serious health effects...so please relax, breath, and enjoy the weather!
Thank you for the quick
Thank you for the quick response. Certainly makes me feel better. Given I-131 has a much shorter half life, we can assume that the radiation due to I-131 will fade out in a couple of months but how about cs-137 with a much longer half life. Can you please share any of your calculation based on Cesium content.
Yes, Cs137 will be around
Yes, Cs137 will be around much longer (30 year half life), but the amount is really low and the dose is about 40 times less than the I131 dose at this point. This means it would take ~7 years to accumulate the same dose (1 mrem) as the 2 months of I131. The dose due to natural sources over those 7 years would be 2800 mrem.
Effects on California Produce
I hope I am interpreting your information correctly to decide that health risks associated with planting and consuming produce from a vegetable garden in Sonoma County is probably minimal??
Thank-you for providing this public service. I have not found this specific information, and presented in this way anywhere else.
And my best hopes for the people in Japan.
By all means, eat your
By all means, eat your vegetables (and some wine, too). I share your hope and optimism for the people of Japan.