Milk/Raw milk isotopes distinction; possible additives, boron?
I am puzzled by the absence of radioactive isotopes in raw milk when they are still present in pasteurized milk, especially since one would assume (perhaps erroneously) that raw milk farms allow their cows more pasture time, and these cows would therefore have been exposed to more radioactive isotopes in the grass they ingested. Could this be due to some kind of additive being given to the cows on the raw milk farms--as is being done in some farms on Hawaii? If so, is it safe to drink the milk?
The BRAWN team announced that they will no longer be testing raw milk samples. What security do we have that they would continue to test negative? Does radioactivity just pass through the animal's body and leave nothing behind in the case of Cs-137, with its long half-life?
I have been holding off on giving my children milk for a while now due to this, so the answer for me is more than academic.
There's definitely a
There's definitely a difference due to the nature of the feed, as a poster mentioned below. There are a lot of variables, which is why we wanted to test both kinds of milk in the first place!
As to any additives, I wanted to reiterate that consuming boron will not accomplish anything. Boron is a neutron absorber, which means it's good at stopping fission chain reactions -- this is why they dumped seawater mixed with boron into the reactors. All the isotopes that we found in our samples are alpha/beta/gamma emitters and would be affected very little by adding boron.
Tim [BRAWM Team Member]
Great question. I too would
Great question. I too would love to understand if this stuff is stored in the cows or not?
they're only taking a few
they're only taking a few samples, so you have to be careful how much you read into it. It could just be that the grass on the particular farm where they are buying the raw milk didn't have as much deposition. The general trend in the pasturized milk is down, so it will likely be at MDA soon as well. And the next raw milk sample they could could end up having detectable levels. That's why I hope they do not stop testing.
Thank you BRAWN for
Thank you BRAWN for providing this forum. According to soil & grass samples on this site the Cesium levels have been going down. Since processed milk primarily comes from cows that are not pasture fed, when the cows start feeding from the first cut of hay that would have the highest levels of Cesium and this would account for the continuing detection in processed milk.