Interesting read-Radioactive Consumer Products

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2011-07-12 14:22

I came across this article that lists radioisotopes in some common and not so common consumer products. I can see how this all contributes to our exposure to radiation over time. I am surprised that they haven't listed bananas on the list but have brazil nuts listed.

http://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/consumer%20products/consumer.htm

I had no idea that lawn fertilizer was so radioactive.

http://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/consumer%20products/fertilizer.htm

The measurements provided in NCRP Report No.95 indicate that the raw phosphate materials (ammonium phosphate, superphosphate, diammonium phosphate, phosphoric acid, etc.) incorporated into fertilizer contain:

U-238: 22 – 140 pCi/g (800 - 5,200 mBq/g)

Th-230: 5.4 - 430 pCi/g (200 - 16,000 mBq/g)

Ra-226: 0.7 - 24 pCi/g (25 – 900 mBq/g).

Th-232: 0.14 to 4.6 pCi/g (5 to 170 mBq/g) of Th-232.

Note that the uranium series is more or less in equilibrium down to Th-230, but radium-226 and its decay products are present at much lower levels. This is due to the chemical processing of the material.

In the production of lawn and garden fertilizers, these raw materials are blended with low phosphate materials. As a result of this blending, the concentrations of U-238, Th-230, Ra-226 and Th-232 in the final product are 10 to 50% of the aforementioned concentrations in the raw material.

‹ EPA Rad Net just wiped out all July Air Readings Thank you for cesium testing for CA milk, water,& some food ›

Pacific Seafood

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-07-12 15:33.

But of course the most important values, for Pacific fish are ‘clasified’. No test results are available for Japan, USA, Canada or Mexico.

Abalone - ticking
Pink - Warm
Coho - Hot
Chum - Hot
Chinook -Scorching
Sockeye - Smoking
Yellowfin - Sizzling
Albacore - Flaming
Bluefin - criticality excursion
Miyagi oyster - thermonuclear

http://www.canfisco.com/wildsalmon/salmon_migration.asp?pattern=summary

So you suspect Pacific

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-07-13 20:37.

So you suspect Pacific Northwest fish to be radiocontaminated from seawater abuses by the Asian states and now especially Japan?

Perrier Mineral Water

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-07-12 15:10.

Perrier® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, a Nestle product

http://www.nestle-watersna.com/pdf/PR_BWQR.pdf

Radiologicals

Gross alpha particle activity 15.00 (pCu/L)
Gross beta 50 (pCu/L)
Radium-226 & Radium-228 Sum 5.00 (pCu/L)
Uranium 0.030 (pCu/L)

San Pellegrino about double

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-07-13 20:55.

San Pellegrino about double the uranium. These are the only two bottled waters with this problem that I have heard about.

You can't imagine how disappointed I am though, I love SP and P. And I'm not buying anymore.

(BTW, are these from Chernobyl, or where?)

Especially unfortunate since

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-07-13 21:06.

Especially unfortunate since glass-bottled water is less common and, at least to some, water stored in plastic bottles is not entirely appetizing.

Here is info about K-40 and

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-07-12 14:25.

Here is info about K-40 and bananas on the same website.

General Information About K-40

Paul Frame, Oak Ridge Associated Universities

Potassium-40(K-40) is a naturally-occurring radionuclide. Wherever there is potassium, there is potassium-40. If there is enough potassium, the K-40 can be detectable with a simple survey instrument.

Data

K-40 Half-life: 1.28 x 109 years

K-40 Decay Mode:

Beta decay (89.3%). The beta maximum energy is 1.31 MeV

Electron Capture (10.7%).

Gamma Rays: 1461 keV (10.7%)

Daily intake of potassium element: 3.3 grams

Amount of potassium element in body: 140 grams (1.5 pCi/g or 55 Bq/kg of body weight)

Typical K-40 activity in body: 0.1 uCi; This means that there are over 200,000 atoms of K-40 that decay in the body each minute!

Typical K-40 activity in soil: 10 to 20 pCi/g

Dose from Potassium-40

The dose to a typical member of the population is approximately 15-20 mrem/year due to the K-40 in the body and 10 mrem/year due to the gamma rays emitted by K-40 in the environment (primarily the soil).

The human body maintains relatively tight homeostatic control over potassium levels. This means that the consumption of foods containing large amounts of potassium will not increase the body’s potassium content. As such, eating foods like bananas does not increase your annual radiation dose. If someone ingested potassium that had been enriched in K-40, that would be another story.

This is pretty

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-07-12 14:41.

This is pretty scary!
http://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/Miscellaneous/pacemaker.htm

Over the years, various power sources have been used for pacemakers, including thermoelectric batteries containing 2 to 4 curies of plutonium-238 (88 year half-life). As the term "thermoelectric" implies, the heat from the decaying plutonium is used to generate the electricity that stimulates the heart. At present (2003), there are between 50 and 100 people in the US who have nuclear powered pacemakers. When one of these individuals dies, the pacemaker is supposed to be removed and shipped to Los Alamos where the plutonium will be recovered.

Then they put it on their

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-07-13 21:01.

Then they put it on their lawn and wait for a fire to unfortunately take it off their hands.

Meanwhile, good excuse to go get some more. Oh blessed, useful, natural plutonium! Not just a way to mass-murder innocent civilians to achieve political goals at any cost, most certainly not!

Not scary

Submitted by bandstra on Wed, 2011-07-13 20:29.
Plutonium-238 primarily emits alpha particles when it decays, and these can't even travel through a piece of paper, let alone the metal case of the pacemaker. There is some other radiation that leaves the case, but not much. That link says:
Dose rates at the surface of the pacemaker are approximately 5 to 15 mrem per hour from the emitted gamma rays and neutrons. The whole body exposure is estimated to be approximately 0.1 rem per year to the patient and approximately 7.5 mrem per year to the patient's spouse.
The dose rate of 5–15 mrem/hr is about 10–30 times the dose rate of an airplane flight, which is a tiny dose rate. The dose of 7.5 mrem/year for the spouse is like taking one cross-country airplane trip each year. Also, just to be clear, Pu-238 is not the isotope used to make weapons. Mark [BRAWM Team Member]

i'm not doctor, but i think

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-07-12 15:06.

i'm not doctor, but i think if you need a pacemaker, you're probably not going to be around here much longer.

http://www.orau.org/PTP/colle

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-07-12 14:46.

http://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/medalsmementoes/atomaqua.htm

Atomaqua (1968)

This bottle of desalinated water was produced by Southern California Edison for "Nuclear Week in New York" which was held May 18-26, 1968. California's wine industry obviously provided the inspiration for the bottle.

That was the year that Unit 1 of the utility's San Onofre plant began operating. Since the site hadn't yet been connected to the City of San Clemente's water system, they had to build a seawater distillation unit to provide freshwater (fifty gallons per minute). The City began supplying sufficient water to the site by the time that Units 2 and 3 were constructed and no additional distillers were required.

So that no energy would be wasted, the heat for the distiller was supplied by the reactor's low pressure steam!

"Eau d'atomique," of course, means "atomic water."

Donated by the Nucleus

Much of this information was kindly provided by Gene Cramer, a So CAL employee from 1969 to 1995