Nuclear Expert Horrified That Feds Abandon Extra Radiation Monitoring of Milk And Water

“I really am horrified,” said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It’s quite staggering and it seems to be part of the pattern of the EPA trying to make sure that there are no measurements that could cause people to be concerned.”


Routine measurements will resume; nuclear expert calls decision “staggering”

May 5 — The U.S. government has abandoned efforts to monitor elevated levels of radiation that infiltrated the nation’s water and milk in the wake of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has faced stiff criticism for its slow and spotty monitoring of radioactive iodine, cesium and other materials that were ejected into the atmosphere after the Fukushima nuclear power plant was struck by a tsunami in early March. The material fell on the United States in rainwater and was ingested by cows, which passed it through into their milk.

Radiation levels in some milk and rain samples have exceeded normal long-term federal drinking water standards, but EPA officials have described the levels as almost completely safe. Anti-nuclear power activists have accused the federal government of downplaying the health risks in an effort to protect the nuclear power industry and predicted that the radioactive isotopes will lead to a rash of cancers.

Now, less than two months after the nuclear disaster began to unfold, the EPA is abandoning most of its additional radiation monitoring activities. Recent monitoring has continued to detect the radiation in the North American environment, though at declining levels.

“Due to the consistent decrease in radiation levels across the country associated with the Japanese nuclear incident,” the agency said in a statement Thursday, “EPA has returned to the routine RadNet sampling and analysis process for precipitation, drinking water and milk.”

That means that the agency will return to testing radiation levels in rainwater, drinking water and milk every three months. The next such tests are planned in August.

Additionally, the EPA said it is “evaluating the need” for additional radiation air monitors that were deployed around the nation after the nuclear accident.

The lack special monitoring efforts will make it more difficult for residents to assess the local hazards of the Japanese disaster. Critics lambasted the decision Thursday.

“I really am horrified,” said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It’s quite staggering and it seems to be part of the pattern of the EPA trying to make sure that there are no measurements that could cause people to be concerned.”

Thursday, May 5, 2011
By: John Upton

Source: The Bay Citizen

3 thoughts on “Nuclear Expert Horrified That Feds Abandon Extra Radiation Monitoring of Milk And Water”

  1. Thank you for covering a story that is buried by MSM. The idea this problem will go away if they ignore it is insane.
    I live in Cazadero, a rain forest in Northern CA. Many trees (not all) are beginning to lose the green in their leaves (this is May) and the leaves are turning a dead white. Where can one find any credible information about the effects of radiation on trees? These are big trees that were fine a month ago. They are not Oak, they are too big.
    If you can point me into the right direction, it would certainly be appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Marilyn

    Reply
  2. It would be appreciated from a lot of directions, I have no doubt. In one piece we’re told that radiation levels in US milk are 2,000 times the “safe” level – or rather the former safe level, the one before the EPA started ratcheting safe levels upward. Anyway, in other pieces we’re told that there is an ongoing danger from damage to DNA, then that we ought to be drinking plenty of milk – it’s good for us! The government can’t keep its lies straight, and neither, it seems, can the so-called “experts.” You can buy an old civil service radiation detector and cumulative-dose pens for $50, but then you need another $250 to get the thing calibrated – which you learn AFTER buying it.

    There is so much conflicting information out here it’s absolutely impossible to come to conclusion that can be trusted. I’d appreciate any more information you have to offer!

    Ian

    Reply
  3. We bought a new Ludlum model 3 with a model 44-9 pancake detector. We had to wait months to receive it because of their back-orders. Here is copies of the e-mails i sent describing some of my results.

    Hello
    We had our first rain yesterday since we received our detector.
    At the beginning of the rain at 8:55 am i wiped a paper towel on the same table on our deck that i got 20 to 40 cpm’s from when dry measuring wind blown pollen and detritus. This is on the high side of what i read as background.
    The first wet sample peaked at 150 cpm’s and stabilized (averaged) at 100 cpm’s.This translates to .26 millirems per hour. Paper placed between the detector and the sample which shields alpha (helium nuclei) lowered the cpm to 60.
    At 9:26 am i took another sample using the same method. it peaked at 350 cpm and averaged 300 cpm. Paper placed between this sample and the detector lowered the rate to 250 cpm. This rate is like living at 30000 feet!
    At 10:00 am i took another reading using the same method. This showed 500 cpm average and with paper showed 250. 500 cpm is equivalent to 1.5 mR/hr and 100 cpm is generally considered “dangerous”.
    At 10:30 i took another sample after the rain stopped. It showed 300 cpm and with paper 150.
    Background at 10:43 am is 40 cpm.
    At 11:30 am i took another reading. 100 cpm and with paper 60 cpm.
    Now i know why the epa has stopped testing!
    Please do your own research. Remember these isotopes don’t “disappear” when they recede into soil, bodies of water and gasify. They are taken up by the biosphere and we will eat, drink or breathe some of them!
    Readings taken two hours after the above tests showed drops of activity down to 20 cpm for the lower beginning readings and 100 cpm for the test that showed 500 cpm. After another hour the 500 cpm down to 100 cpm sample showed 40 cpm. This morning the 500 cpm sample still reads 40 cpm.
    This indicates to me the main isotopes are gases that are concentrating in rain and quickly regasify once the air starts to dry out. My guess is the readings were showing iodine for the most part. What is not guessing is that rain is HUGELY radioactive and if i am measuring iodine this gaseous isotope is absorbed through our lungs, skin and eyes.
    All samples were sealed in plastic bags wet and opened only when i retested them.

    After this i continued testing and got readings as high as 1200 cpm down to 350 cpm from the same rain taken at different times and at different places. The last rain we had yesterday showed a 2000 cpm count that like the others slowly went down over hours to 500 cpm and this morning that sample is reading 40 cpm. We are being dosed by gaseous isotopes. We will see a HUGE rise in infant mortality very soon and an upsurge in cancers that will dwarf the 1 person in 2 that now will suffer cancer in their lives.
    THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO MAKE THE DEATH RATE INCREASE
    Henry Kissenger, war criminal, genocidist, judiac.
    Israel is responsible for Fukushima. http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/

    Reply

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