energynews has data u need

[Kai Vetter, UC Berkeley professor of nuclear engineering] and his colleagues try to put the health risks in perspective by pairing their data with calculations of “effective doses.” For example, a person would have to drink 134 liters of the rainwater with the highest radiation levels to equal the average radiation exposure from flying cross-country. …

[Robert Alvarez, a former DOE deputy assistant secretary for national security] is critical of those kinds of comparisons, which are also offered by EPA and health agencies.

Isotopes like iodine-131 are not part of normal background radiation, and have unique properties that background radiation does not, like accumulating in the thyroid gland, he pointed out.

“The doses are extremely small, and so, too, are the risks,” he said. “But they liken it to everyday life and it’s not like everyday life. You shouldn’t have radioactive iodine even in tiny quantities finding its way into your milk supplies.” …