Highest radiation EVER in Calif just last week. 2 times hazardous level!

Hello:

A couple of thoughts, which may or may not help.

While the title of the piece says "Highest Radiation in LA Air Yet," it's important to note that the readings are not of ambient air, but of concentrated dust trapped in a home air filter. The filter was run for about a month or more, I believe, so is measuring captured dust like what you'd have in a vacuum bag. Of course, interior dust is trapped and not mobile like the exterior, but this dust may have been transported inside by airflow, or by foot traffic, etc. When Marco Kaltofen measured car filters for radioactive particulate matter he calculated the actual human exposure level by taking into consideration the amount of time the filter was used (or miles driven in that case). So, the article you link is not reporting the level of contamination floating around in the reporter's home at any one time, it's the amount of contamination captured by the filter in total for the time it was operated. Regardless, it is concerning to see the levels consistently increasing monthly.

In any case, the reporter claims that "no other reason is more compelling" for his elevated air filter readings than sea spray re-suspending radioactive contaminants from the Fukushima Daichi NPP damaged fuel, that was released into the sea. For a thorough explanation from the source, UC Davis, read their sobering study about these newly identified, highly mobile and persistent uranium buckyballs being produced at Fukushima because of the interaction with sea water (http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10131). This is a plausible theory for the elevated readings, but does assume significant and increasing radioactive contamination of seawater offshore from the city of Santa Monica from the fall-out over the ocean and advancing radioactive plume. Sea spray is an historically documented means of exposure along the North Sea from Sellafield releases, and in various reports of sea spray in vicinity of ocean front NPPs. So, I do think the sea spray will be a contributing source of exposure for people near the west coast for years to come, although I am not confident that it is a significant exposure source yet, or how significant it will become (depends upon when TEPCO and Japanese govt stop radiological releases and dumping).

At this point I really think there's a much more viable explanation for the increasing radiation levels in the reporter's air filter readings, based upon a documented contamination. Both the USGS and CDPH have released actual measurements (not theory) of fall-out deposition in the Los Angeles area, and their results are consistent that LA received a significant amount of Cs134&137 fallout in the initial March/April plumes. The USGS report documents actual precipitative fall-out, and the CDPH report documents that LA, alone of all 9 CA testing stations, still had detectable cesium in its air monitor for the 4th quarter.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1277/
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/Pages/RHB-RadReport.aspx

So, we know the stuff arrived here by air. The Cs137 has a 30-year half life, so it will around for 300 years and reports coming out of Chernobyl reveal that Cs137 levels have not significantly decreased beyond decay rate. So, it's here and it's apparently here to stay. Los Angeles has had an unusually dry and extremely windy winter. The EPA RadNet has also measured elevated beta levels over the past several months, while the strong, dry winds have persisted. I believe the elevated and increasing radiation levels in air filters throughout the LA basin are attributable to said dry winds re-suspending the radioactive fall-out from the soil where it landed last spring, into LA air and consequently, air filters (including human lungs).

This discussion would be fairly easy to settle with a few actual samples submitted to a lab for radioisotope analysis (cost ranges from $85-250/sample). I highly recommend that ocean water be sampled, along with any other alarmingly high samples. Why unnecessarily prolong the suspense and speculation? I really encourage all concerned people to contribute to the body of documented data by sending samples that have alarmingly high readings in to be analyzed for actual isotope identification and contamination levels. Take control and find out for yourselves. Identify what type of crap actually is causing elevated readings, which will in all likelihood help indicate its source, then share the data publicly so we all have a better understanding of the actual exposures our families are receiving. This is critical so that the concerned public can move past fear and speculation into constructive action resulting from real data.

MM