First time for cesium in veggies in bay area?
Hi guys( brawm)stumbled on this Is this true .post study please.
"How has Northern California been affected by the radiation? Well, just over two months have passed and trace elements of Cesium-137 have already been detected and is rising in local samples of strawberries, kale, and grass. According to a study by the UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Lab, test results further demonstrate that this is the first time ever that radioactive Cesium 137 has been detected in “spinach, arugala, and kale around the San Francisco Bay area.”[3]
http://www.gonob.com/1/post/2011/05/fukushima-update-tepco-water-contami...
History
I was questioning brawm more on the "first time ever detected"statement is this true is this the first time a lab has tested veggies that have cesium 137 in them in bay area.historically ?
Not first time detected
I haven't been able to find exact test results to show this, but Cs-137 left over from weapons tests has been measured for decades all over the world. One way to see this is to search for cesium 137 tracer on Google Scholar, which reveals many papers over the last few decades that use Cs-137 concentrations to measure, e.g., soil erosion and sedimentation.
Mark [BRAWM Team Member]
Thank u
But I can't find one test for past radiologic events indicating cesium in produce ,sure milk air and rain but no produce so it may be true brawm has made history not great history but historic nonetheless .
Detected almost 2 months ago
I don't know what that they mean by the following:
"trace elements of Cesium-137 have already been detected and is rising in local samples of strawberries, kale, and grass"
"this is the first time ever that radioactive Cesium 137 has been detected in “spinach, arugala, and kale around the San Francisco Bay area"
Cs-137 has been detected since the beginning of April in spinach,
strawberries, kale and arugula.
Latest results:
Grass: 1.68 Bq/kg (high was 7.04 Bq/kg)
Spinach: Below minimum detectable activity since 4/20
Strawberries: 0.15 Bq/kg (high was 0.72 Bq/kg)
Kale: 0.52 Bq/kg (high was 0.65 Bq/kg)
Arugula: Below minimum detectable activity since 4/20
Nothing is "rising" and it was all detected a long time ago
not BRAWM but...
I would say that there is a problem with the "and is rising" part of that post. They were fluctuating a bit earlier, but the most recent tests show that it appears the amounts really are on the decline (though I hope there will be some ongoing regular testing while the Beast is still spewing over there).
The testing and results can be found via tpone of the stickies above. You have to be careful to look at the dates of these posts too, whether they predate the most recent test results.
Japan study
Potatoes may be more dangerous than other vegetables
Potatoes may be more liable to be contaminated by radioactive materials released by the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant than other types of fruits and vegetables, according to a study by Japan's agriculture ministry.
Researchers looked at the absorption rates of 17 types of vegetables and four fruits and found that sweet potatoes and potatoes were significantly more likely to take in radioactive materials than other fruits and leafy vegetables.
The maximum absorption rate of a sweet potato was 17 times higher than that for a lettuce, for instance.
"If potatoes are grown in farmlands where high concentration levels of cesium have been detected in the soil, they could contain more (radioactive material) at the time of harvesting than safety standards," a ministry official said.
The research, released by the government on May 27, was based on data drawn from foreign countries with a similar climate to Japan.
The absorption rate was calculated as the proportion of the cesium present in the soil that finds its way into a fruit or vegetable's edible portions at harvest.
For example, if sweet potatoes with a maximum absorption rate of 0.36 were grown in soil with 5,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, the agriculture ministry researchers would project about 1,800 becquerels of radioactive material per kilogram in the vegetable itself if the maximum rate was applied.
The study gave three different absorption figures for each foodstuff: a maximum ratio, a minimum ratio, and an average ratio.
According to the data, the average absorption rate of sweet potatoes was 0.033. The maximum and minimum rates were 0.36 and 0.0020, respectively. The corresponding figures for Irish potatoes were 0.011 (average), 0.13 (maximum) and 0.00047 (minimum).
Other fruits and vegetables had considerably lower absorption ratios. The average rate for a lettuce was 0.0067, with a maximum rate of 0.021 and a minimum of 0.0015.
Apples showed a 0.0010 average absorption rate and a 0.0030 maximum.
Under the Food Sanitation Law, the maximum permissible level of cesium in a kilogram of vegetables is 500 becquerels.
In April, the agriculture ministry and the Fukushima prefectural government jointly conducted a soil survey in farmland beyond a 30-kilometer radius of the Fukushima plant.
They found about 5,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram of soil in Iitate village, Kawamata town, Otama village, Nihonmatsu city and Motomiya city. Residents of Iitate village and part of Kawamata town have already been told to leave their homes.
The ministry decided to look at contamination levels to about 15 centimeters below the surface because cesium leaked from the plant is likely to be mixed into the soil when farmers prepare the land before planting.
It gathered overseas data on soil contaminated by cesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years, to a depth of 10 to 20 cm.
"The amount of data is limited, so the absorption rates are just for reference. We want each local government or farmer to decide which agricultural products to plant," a ministry official said.
The ministry has already banned rice planting in some areas, but has no plans for similar embargoes on the planting of vegetables and fruits.
Instead, it plans to stop shipments if agricultural products are found to exceed safety standards for radioactive materials when they are harvested.
An official of JA Michinoku Adachi, an agricultural cooperative in Nihonmatsu, said: "The absorption rates released by the agricultural ministry are just a guide. But in areas where high concentrations of radioactive materials are detected, we could change to products which have low absorption rates."
(This article was written by Satoshi Otani and Keishi Nishimura.)
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105280183.html