Amount of radiation - from a worried pregnant woman

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2011-03-29 14:55

Hello,

I am in my third trimester and worried about the effect of the radiation on my unborn baby.

I have read the article (http://www.nber.org/~almond/revision_nov6.pdf) about the low dose of radiation (that was considered safe) in Sweden after Chernobyl and the affect of that on unborn babies. My question is - is the amount of fallout we are seeing on the west coast (I'm in BC Canada) comparable to the levels seen in Sweden?

I do not know whether I am overacting or there really is something to worry about. Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks for all the info - it is great to have found an honest forum.

‹ Cesium brought down in rain What is the Alert Level of CPM's? ›

Moving to Japan soon! :o(

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2011-03-31 00:56.

Hi,
I am suppose to move to Mito, Japan in the middle of April. I have reviewed the radiation reports (http://mextrad.blob.core.windows.net/page/08_Ibaraki_en.html) but am still told it is safe. Is that true?
Mito is around 125 kilometers from the nuclear plants and I am concerned about the radiation. Is it safe to go? Any information would be very helpful.

A rough, but generous,

Submitted by Brian (not verified) on Tue, 2011-03-29 16:12.

A rough, but generous, estimate of the surface radioactivity we've seen in Berkeley is 1 kBq/m^2. This is equal to the R0 group of the Sweden data, which did not show effects.

(My calculation of surface activity assumed that all rain that has fallen since we started seeing any activity in the rain had an average of 8 Bq/L, and was all absorbed on the surface of the ground, with no decay of the I-131.)

I don't understand your

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-03-29 19:20.

I don't understand your calculation. Shouldn't you be basing it on the Cesium activity since this was what was used in the Sweden study?

I read the abstract to that study this morning.

Submitted by Raj (not verified) on Tue, 2011-03-29 15:18.

I read the abstract to that study this morning.

What I concluded from this is that even the normal level of background radiation in North America of around 3mSv per year poses some risk. Any additional exposure adds to the problem.

I also looked at this study:

http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-189... It shows that fetal thyroid-dose-conversion factors for I-131 are far up to 60x greater than for an adult. (page 10)

Which confirms some of the findings from the study that you cited.

I suggest you

1) drink only distilled or reverse osmosis filtered water

2) drink soy milk instead of cow milk and avoid any dairy products especially avoid goat milk

3) buy a HEPA air filter with the highest "Merv" rating you can afford. Put it in your bedroom and run it all night when you sleep.

I am not a doctor, so you might want to talk to one about the dietary changes I am suggesting.

I-131 bio-accumulates in milk

Submitted by Raj (not verified) on Thu, 2011-03-31 21:01.

The concentrations of I-131 and other radionuclides bio-accumulate in milk. Especially for grass fed cows and goats.

--

Raj

I don't understand why soy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2011-03-31 16:52.

I don't understand why soy milk is ok if it is exposed to the same air & water that has radiation in it as cows are?

stored dry milk, aged cheese has less or no radioactive Iodine

Submitted by Ingrid (not verified) on Wed, 2011-03-30 00:47.

Regarding radioactive iodine only (the thyroid cancer risk), if food is stored for 2-3 months any iodine in it is not radioactive anymore, since I131's half-life is only 8 days. So cheese that is aged 3 months for example would not pose a thyroid risk, even if the milk it was made out of had high levels of iodine 131. Also dry milk stored that long. That doesnt' hold for Cesium and other radionuclides with longer half-lives.

I think I131 is usually the predominant radionuclide in fallout (?) And it's possible that it has a more virulent effect on cells than other radionuclides precisely because of that fast rate of decay (I read that somewhere but don't remember the source so this may be more on the level of rumor than fact!)
--Ingrid

So what about...

Submitted by JMS (not verified) on Tue, 2011-03-29 20:10.

So what about a five month old baby? she is still breastfed and I am trying to limit her exposure to the outdoors, we are only drinking and cooking with bottled water and we have pretty much eliminated any dairy that has been produced recently and are relying on previously frozen cheese and powdered milk. My son and I already drink soy.

iodine supplement

Submitted by Raj (not verified) on Thu, 2011-03-31 21:37.

The only thing that I have read and it is again from this study:

http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-189...

on page 12. Its a bit dense reading, but they state that women who were exposed to I-131 and had taken an iodine supplement transferred less I-131 into breast milk.

Now I am most definitely not suggesting that you take a large dose of Potassium Iodide. But I would suggest that you consider taking an Iodine supplement.

Read the section entitled "Pregnant and breastfeeding women at risk"
http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories/2005/11/03/1496781.htm

They suggest 100 - 200 ug (micrograms) of iodine a day.

Again, I am not a doctor so you probably should check this out with one.