Urine samples from somebody with a high dairy intake.
Maybe you could test a human subject and get some urine samples from somebody that eats a lot of dairy products. It would be interesting to see what the measurements are in humans at this point.
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YUK! I would like to see
YUK!
I would like to see pictures of the team taking the above mentioned measurements in their pristine beakers.
Ooooh, what an interesting
Ooooh, what an interesting subject! I really mean that! Monitor urine (and perhaps (?) feces just for completeness although surely not maximum fun) over say the next few years. The long period due to future radionuclide intake that will come via the consumption of crops that are grown on the contaminated soil. I suspect that in general it is guaranteed that increased radionuclides will be in American excrement for some time. However, would they be above detection limits? A quick google turns up hits... this has been done before! Too much to read ATM, but again I'm glad you brought this up!
We were going to do this
We were going to do this very early on, however, doing research on campus with human subjects requires a great deal of red tape. The only way we could do this without the red tape is to test ourselves.
Urine and Feces Sampling? Local VA & Staff might be a source?
You might want to contact the local VA clinics-Martinez, CA is fairly close to you. Contact them and see if they would do a cooperative volunteer effort with Veterans living in the Bay Area. I know they do all sorts of volunteer studies, I think each Veteran's treating Dr. asks the Vet if they'd like to participate-with thousands of Veterans going in for regular visits surely rounding up a sampling of 50 or more should not be too difficult? Also, maybe even the staff at any of the VA clinics would be willing to participate since there are Dr's and other staff who are alumni of the UC system and heck, they have an abundance of urine sampling cups and those fecal sampling packets that Vets smear their sample on and send in too.
I hope this helps!
-Off my menu: All Seafoods because the oceans really are a military and industrial sewer! Yes, I will miss Anchovies on my pizza, fishsticks, red snapper, tuna (even 'chicken of the sea' is no longer 'worthy,'crab, fake crab (made with Pollock, an ocean fish), clam chowder, Nori Seaweed,Caviar etc... See: http://pstuph.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/can-ocean-currents-transport-radi...
i'm sure we wouldn't mind if
i'm sure we wouldn't mind if you did that :) are you still considering doing that? or is that completely off the table?
We never really had the
We never really had the capacity to test these additional samples. As we move into a post-event phase (i.e Air and water samples are all below MDA), we may consider testing any build-up of Cs137 in (our own) human urine. The biological half live of Cs137 (70 days) may allow us to possibly see some bioaccumulation at very low levels.
Once air samples are all
Once air samples are all below MDA, do you plan to still test(maybe not as frequently) and monitor air quality until the crisis is over? I'd be curious to see if any more fallout(even if tiny) continues to come our way as time moves forward.
Thanks again for all you continue to do.....
This would be very
This would be very interesting to see. Especially from those whose diet did not change and maybe one or two people who have tried to avoid radionucleotides. Would you only be measuring Cesium? Is that the only isotope that you think you would find?
I would pay to see these results.. : )
ooooh. that sounds neato :)
ooooh. that sounds neato :) not being facetious, either...
Even urine has red tape.
Even urine has red tape. It's a pity you don't have a larger capacity, there seems to be so many avenues you could sample and study. Since there are not many government agencies or NGO's are really taking detailed notes, its a rare opportunity lost.