Radioactive Strontium found in Hilo Hawaii milk (EPA - Reported Today in Forbes)
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/27/radioactive-strontium-fou...
Radioactive Strontium Found in Hilo, Hawaii Milk
Apr. 27 2011 - 8:45 am
By JEFF MCMAHON
Image by Getty Images North America via @daylife
A radioactive isotope of strontium has been detected in American milk for the first time since Japan’s nuclear disaster—in a sample from Hilo, Hawaii—the Environmental Protection Agency revealed yesterday.
“We have completed our first strontium milk sample analysis and found trace amounts of strontium-89 in a milk sample from Hilo, Hawaii. The level was approximately 27,000 times below the Derived Intervention Level set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” EPA said in a statement emailed to me yesterday afternoon. EPA posted the test result at epa.gov in a pdf.
EPA found 1.4 picoCuries per liter of strontium-89 in a milk sample collected in Hilo on April 4.
More at url
What troubles me is that they say they have no other results, but if you follow Jeff McMahon's Frobes Blog you will see that there ARE more EPA reports for detection of radio-Strontium.
They salso say that if they see radio-Cesium they suspect they will find radiostrontium.
This sucks but was not unexpected.
PLEASE send this link along wherever you can (to the Forbes blog) and DEMAND more testing for Strontium radionuclides as this is one of the MOST insidious of the radionuclides we are exposed to.
Question for BRAWM: Does the Hilo Sr89 result
indicate that there is likely also strontium 90?
Is it also likely that if plumes of SR89 reached Hawaii from Fukushima that they also reached the west coast?
Does BRAWM know of ANYONE testing for SR90 or who has the capacity to test for it in soil and food.
One of the BRAWM team asked me if I knew of any other results for SR anywhere and this HILO milk is the only one I could find aside from 3 samples very early on by EPA HOWEVER -- we do know that the radiation and public health project has found sr90 in all the baby teeth they have tested CURRENTLY and that most operating commercial plants do have sr90 emissions. My guess is that the INDUSTRY does not want testing ---so AGAIN - what does BRAWM think should be done to get some clarity on whether or not sr90 is here along with the cesium 134-7.
Strontium
I know that NC has sent out samples for Strontium after some positive results for Cesium returned. I'll post when I find out the results.
Strontium result
The first North Carolina test for Strontium has come back negative. It was run on a milk sample obtained on March 28.
Thanks so much LT. I'm glad
Thanks so much LT. I'm glad someone somewhere is testing for Strontium.
Bump -- Tim: Is Sr-90
Bump -- Tim: Is Sr-90 likely here in our environment or not in the opinion of BRAWM -- wondering about the original posting. Thanks
Strontium 89 - Fission or Pharmaceutical
I cannot find a reference that shows Strontium 89 is a fission product (only Strontium 90). I'm only finding that it is a manmade isotope to treat cancer. Can the team shed some insight on if it be a fission product? Is it from Japan or from some cancer treatment?
Sr-89 is also a fission
Sr-89 is also a fission product. It's a little less common than Sr-90, but has a much shorter half-life (51 days, compared to 29 years).
Tim [BRAWM Team Member]
Hello Tim I'm still confused
Hello Tim
I'm still confused as to whether it's likely that strontium is here in our environment from Fukushima. I was hoping you could comment on the above news to put it in context.
thanks much
S-89
Yes it is from Fukushima, today they are reporting it in large quantities in soil by Fukushima
Large Quantities: 500
Large Quantities:
500 meters SSW of the ventilation tower (?) of reactors 1 & 2
Sr-90: 570 Bq/Kq (dry soil) Samples collected Apr 18
50-60 Km NW of the plant (Iitate / Namie) highest contamination detected:
Sr-90: 32 Bq/Kq (soil) Samples collected mid March
- Seawater Contamination-
30 meters N drain reactor 5 & 6
Sr-90: 7.7 Bq/l
15 km from the plant:
Sr-90: 4.6 Bq/l
http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/TKY201105080156.html
At those levels I wouldn't
At those levels I wouldn't expect to find anything significant outside of Japan.
IF the plume carried Strontium 89 to Hawaii
and large amounts are found dispersed near the plants, how can you presume (expect) that it isn't in the debris, the sea water, and in the plumes which blew over the US and came down in the rain?
My problem here is that NO ONE seems to be testing for it here. It is one of THE MOST dangerous radioisotopes.
I suspect the reason no one is looking for it is because it is already here in large quantities and has been found in the baby teeth of EVER BABY TOOTH tested by the Radiation and Public Health Project.
Their research will establish some baselines, I believe, to detect upticks in NEW baby teeth (fetuses in utero now and small children) but WITHOUT TESTING HERE, we have no way of knowing whether or not the strontium 90 is here. The EPA reported ONE set of samples in two cities at the beginning of the crisis (a total of 3 samples) which did not detect any Strontium 90 BUT there has been NOTHING NADA ZILCH tested, as far as I am aware, other than this milk in Hilo.
BUT if it is found in milk in HILO then there is a good chance Strontium 90 MAY also be there too.
nuclear industry/NRC: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. I see NOTHING (but their eyes are closed).
The nice thing about
The nice thing about radioactive isotopes is that they are invisible. Out of sight, out of mind.
Carry on, fools. Obama is coming to town!
You know, I really wonder...
...Who it is, exactly, that you're calling "fools", since every single person who's on this Forum and is able to read your post(s), has clearly made an effort to become better-informed about this ongoing nuclear event and is not a member of the great, unconcerned majority you make such effort to disparage.
I'm just sayin'... If we can read what you say, here, we're not your audience. Might want to cogitate on that some. Or, you know, not.
Rick Cromack.
Allen, Texas
Yeah, I just wanted to
Yeah, I just wanted to define what was being considered as "large quantities" on the previous post. Strontium-89 contamination levels are higher, though, according to Tepco:
Adjacent to industrial waste disposal facility (SSW 500 meters)
Sr-89: 4400 Bq/Kq (dry soil) Samples collected Apr 18
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11050806-e.html
Samples from Fukushima strontium
Up to 570 becquerels of strontium 90 per kilogram of dry soil were detected in samples from 3 locations. They were taken on April 18, about 500 meters from the Number 1 and 2 reactors at soil depths of up to 5 centimeters. The amount detected is about 130 times higher than a previous high, level that was measured in Fukushima Prefecture before the accident at the nuclear plant.
NHk
Thanks
Thank you Tim. And thank you for such a quick response.
bump
bump
bump
bump
Bump
Bump
“It Can’t Happen Here”
“It Can’t Happen Here” is the constant refrain of the nuclear power industry and yet, as you point out heroically for a mainstream journalist, it ALREADY IS happening here. The worst case scenarios, one by one, occur both catastrophically and routinely without our truly informed consent.
There is an argument which arose in a Constitutional Law course I took – that the cost-benefit analysis used by the courts to PERMIT the emission and effluence of carcinogenic and mutagenic levels of radionuclide emissions in “normal” and “routine” operations of commercial nuclear power plants because the “benefits” of nuclear power theoretically “outweigh” this cost — this anlaysis is inherently an unConstitutional deprivation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (and property). The industry and government is engaged ina “taking” of our rights when the PERMIT a certain percnrtgae of US citizens and others to die of cancer.
As many scientists have pointed out, however, this is not just a single generation or single exposure problem. These radiotoxic contaminants alter our very DNA altering ALL generations in the future by mutating our genetic codes with intergenerational mutations passed on to our children and ALL our descendants. Because the radioactive lives of radiocesium and radiostrontium in particular are hundreds of years and other radiocuclides will be toxic for hundreds or thousands of generations, this “taking” and deprivation will continue from generation to generation.
The radioactive contamination from Chernobyl and Fukushima and atomic bomb testing and even “normal” nuclear power plant operations will be with us FOREVER.
The theft of our rights and our health and well being (and psychological well being — just look at the reports of sucides in Japan and farmers and fishermen and entire regions frightened and worried while we in the United States have nowhere to “duck and cover” from radioiodine, radiocesium and now apparently radiostrontium in the air and water and milk and green vegetables and fish bioaccumulating) will be intergenerational.
Hundreds if not thousands of spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants dot the landscape of closed or operating plants which will have to be guarded and monitored and protected for many thousands of years.
And what is the cost of guarding those for 100,000+ years and what are the risks of an unforeseen natural disaster or terrorist attack or just some dumb human error causing periodic accidental mass releases of MORE and MORE radiation contamination?
Even nuclear authorities at Fukushima and here in the US have said they cannot rule out recriticality (a further meltdown or further explosions) and they admit that it COULD happen here (Last night the sicked storms in Tennessee knocked out power to power plants in Tennessee. The back up generators kicked in, last I heard, but the rivers are rising there. Could it be the next one. Could one near you or me? Could the Indian Point Power Plant just outside NYC on the Hudson River be next? (just imagine evacuating NYC and being unable to visit WTC Ground Zero or the Statue of Liberty due to radioactive plumes and swirls of radiation surrounding Liberty Island. No more Broadway, no more Times Square, no more WALL STREET, if an earthquake causes even a PARTIAL meltdown (as we have now at Fukushima) at Indian Point just outside NYC.
It CAN happen here. There is NO WAY with 100% certainty that a Fukushima or Chernobyl could not happen at almost any of the more than a hundred nuclear power plant complexes in America (many with multiple reactors like Fukushima and ALL with similar designed spent fuel nuclear waste pools.
Thanks for the post, but it is disheartening – especially when Obama seems committed to the “staying the course” on “nukular” power, just like Bush.
I cry for my children and all generations to come. And I applaud, once again, your willingness to publish such important word
AMEN TO THAT!
AMEN TO THAT!
Ditto.
...Anonymous, I took a class like that once, too, and I vividly remember a conversation that introduced me to the concept of "TACIT consent" -- or, as I believe the Latin is, "Qui tacet consentire videtur" (he who is silent, is assumed to agree / consent). (This is related very closely to another maxim, "Volenti non fit injuria", or, no injury is committed against one who consents.)
Bottom line: Our continued participation, without protest, in a society that corporately accepts certain risks without significant public outcry, makes us not only vulnerable to the manifestations of such risks, but, in a real sense, complicit in the materialization of both risks AND outcomes. We all benefit from nuclear power; few of us, until now, have actively opposed said power. Still fewer of us have been willing to live lives OUTSIDE the benefits of nuclear power. Therefore, our current soul-searching about same, while completely understandable as we are still in the crucible of Fukushima, smacks more than a little of hypocrisy.
Even more bluntly: If we REALLY gave a damn, we'd have made our opposition known before now, not merely when nuclear power has become manifestly, immediately, inconvenient to us. Longtime opponents of nuclear power would be justified in saying, Oh, sure, NOW you've figured out that this technology is dangerous. Where were you when we were out attending hearings, writing letters and shaking protest signs? Oh, that's right: Doing your laundry, courtesy the power generated by that fission reactor down the turnpike, shaking your head as you glimpsed those wacky anti-nuke ding-dongs on the evening news.
...Know what? They'd be right. At least, in my case. I'm eating crow right now, lightly seasoned with cesium, marinated in iodine and served on a big plate of They-told-me-so.
Rick.
I agree for the most part,
I agree for the most part, Rick, the thing that pisses me off though is that I would love to not rely on nuclear. But I don't get a choice when i plug in my lamp where the power comes from. I don't own a home so I can't get solar. I have long argued that I WANT gas prices to be high, because only then will people drive less, buy more fuel efficient cars, carpool, etc. I even think the government should mandate that people get their car regularly serviced to increase fuel efficiency and we should be giving much more generous tax breaks for electric cars and carpooling. I would love to be able to choose solar or wind or geothermal, but the f**in monopoly power company makes those choices. I would also gladly pay more for energy if that were necessary in the short run until full economies of scale were realized with alternative fuels. I just feel powerless - and I agree that many people are very apathetic and waste energy and just don't care. But my only choice it seems is to go 'off the grid' and wander into the woods or something ;), and i can't really do that as a single mom of a small child.
But I am NOT complicit in this, and I am angry that I, and my son, will pay the price for others' greed. god bless america...
totally agree.
totally agree.
Nuclear power unnecessary
Rick; The myth that we need nuclear power generation is false. We can have all the benifits of electricity without nuclear power and without greenhouse gas buildup. See Helen Caldicott's commissioned work Carbon Free, Nuclear Free below.
http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/CarbonFreeNuclearFree.pdf
The powers that be, are heavily invested in nuclear power and oil. They are stopping the development of clean sources like wind and solar. A bill before congress to help subsidize the ridiculus permitting fee of $2500.00 for home solar is in the works. If they wanted, they could shut down all the plants and put just a small fraction of the money that is currently going to nuclear into solar and we'd be done with the dirty and extremly dangerous nuclear. If this admistration was really behind clean sources of energy they would have put solar panels on the white house roof. They are not behind 'alternate' sources, it's just more rhetroic.
There are companies trying to come to market with 'compressed air cars' which use no gas, but to be sure, the oil industry is working to stop them.
Don't believe the lies about nuclear's neccessity. Several countries are in the process of shutting them down and their lights will not go off.
Bump
Bump
Re-bump
Still hoping to see this addressed.
Thanks
It's been found for the
It's been found for the first time because it's the first time they bothered to test for it. And does anyone else think it's odd that the BRAWM team has been finding cesium in all of its milk samples, yet EPA has only found it a couple times in only 4 locations?
Also, they are only testing water for Iodine-131 and all the other isotope fields are blank.
Hoping the BRAWM team will
Hoping the BRAWM team will address this finding of Strontium!
Bump
Bump
Can the BRAWM team comment
Can the BRAWM team comment on this very disturbing info?
The EPA has lost so much
The EPA has lost so much funding because of big business interests that we can't monitor our food or safety in a timely matter. The EPA needs emergency funding and priority emergency attention!
This is so true. I used to
This is so true. I used to work in Congress and there has been a concerted effort over the last couple decades to cut funding to the EPA and also to restrict the amount of oversight they can have over industry. It's really sad. At the same time, lies are spread that the EPA is this powerful entity wrecking havoc across the country. Nothing could be further from the truth. They have been bled dry and neutered for the purpose of allowing polluting industries to operate unchecked. They need both more funding and also direct mandates from congress to REGULATE and test in the PUBLIC interest.
Facts by EPA strontium
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html
EPA fact
How do people come in contact with strontium-90?
Everyone is exposed to small amounts of strontium-90, since it is widely dispersed in the environment and the food chain. Dietary intake of Sr-90, however, has steadily fallen over the last 30 years with the suspension of nuclear weapons testing. People who live near or work in nuclear facilities may have increased exposure to Sr-90. The greatest concern would be the exposures from an accident at a nuclear reactor, or an accident involving high-level wastes.
I bet alot of people living next to plants dont know this fact...
People living near nuclear
People living near nuclear plants do have more exposure and also higher cancer mortality rates. Strontium is routinely found in the teeth of babies living nuclear plants and children living near nuclear plants also have an increased risk of developing leukemia.
Just one of many studies documenting this:
http://www.c-10.org/pdf/Elevated%20childhood%20cancer%20incidence%20prox...