Main UCB Air and Water Sampling Page

Berkeley Radiological Air and Water Dose Calculation

Main UCB Air and Water Sampling Page

The Dose calculation for water and air intake was performed based upon the annual limit on intake (ALI) for effluent release in table 2 from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations(10 CFR) part 20 appendix B. The NRC numbers are based on the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 30.

This annual limit corresponds to the limit of radiation in water and air being released from a site handling nuclear materials (i.e., hospitals, nuclear reactors, research laboratories, etc.). The "reference man" is assumed to drink 730 liters of water per year or breathe 2.4 million (2.4E6) liters of air per year, and if the person drinks water or breathes air at the stated limit for one year the person would receive a total effective dose of 50 millirem. The total effective dose takes into consideration the method of intake (ingestion for water or inhalation for air) and the combined biological and radiological removal of the isotope from the human body.

These figures are conservative because any exposure to these radionuclides in California would be for a short time (days or weeks at most), while the NRC and ICRP numbers assume a yearlong constant exposure where the radionuclides reach equilibrium in the body.

Dose Conversion Factors used in our analysis

The dose conversion factor relates the activity of a radionuclide (in Becquerels (Bq) or microcuries (uCi)) to the total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) received by the person (in millirem or microSieverts (uSv)). See the examples after the table that explain how we arrived at these numbers and how they can be used to calculate dose from our measurements.

Dose Conversion Factors for WATER

Units  I-131  I-132  Cs-134  Cs-137  Te-132  Be-7

millirem/uCi  6.849E+01  6.849E-01  7.610E+01  6.849E+01  7.610E+00  1.142E-01

uSv/uCi  6.849E+02  6.849E+00  7.610E+02  6.849E+02  7.610E+01  1.142E+00

millirem/Bq  1.851E-03  1.851E-05  2.057E-03  1.851E-03  2.057E-04  3.085E-06

uSv/Bq  1.851E-02  1.851E-04  2.057E-02  1.851E-02  2.057E-03  3.085E-05

Dose Conversion Factors for AIR

Units  I-131  I-132  Cs-134  Cs-137  Te-132  Be-7

millirem/uCi  1.042E+02  1.042E+00  1.042E+02  1.042E+02  2.315E+01  6.944E-01

uSv/uCi  1.042E+03  1.042E+01  1.042E+03  1.042E+03  2.315E+02  6.944E+00

millirem/Bq  2.815E-03  2.815E-05  2.815E-03  2.815E-03  6.256E-04  1.877E-05

uSv/Bq  2.815E-02  2.815E-04  2.815E-02  2.815E-02  6.256E-03  1.877E-04

Dose Conversion Factor Calculation: I-131 in Water

First, to calculate the Dose Conversion Factor (DCF) for I-131 in water, we take the definition of the 50 millirem limit in 730 liters (h) of water consumed by the reference man in one year to calculate the dose per liter:

      (50 millirem) / (730 L) = 0.06849 millirem/L

Next, we use the ALI-derived concentration limit for I-131 in water of 1E-6 uCi/milliliter given in table 2 to calculate the total DCF for I-131 in water:

      (0.06849 millirem/L)/(1E-6 uCi/mL * (1000 mL/1 L)) = 68.49 millirem/uCi.

The activity we report for water is in Becquerel/liter (Bq/L). The conversion between Bq and uCi is 1 uCi = 37,000 Bq. So the DCF in units of millirem/Bq is:

      (68.49 millirem/uCi) * (1 uCi/3.7E4 Bq) = 1.851E-3 millirem/Bq

If you are used to using Sieverts (Sv) instead of millirems, by using the conversion of 1 millirem = 10 microSieverts (uSv), we get the DCF in yet another set of units:

      (68.49 millirem/uCi) * (10 uSv/1 millirem) = 684.9 uSv/uCi

      (1.851E-3 millirem/Bq) * (10 uSv/1 millirem) = 1.851E-2 uSv/Bq

So depending on the dose units (uSv or millirems) and activity units (uCi or Becquerels) that you prefer, there are four ways of expressing the Dose Conversion Factor for I-131 in water:

Units  DCF

millirem/uCi  68.49

uSv/uCi  684.9

millirem/Bq  1.851E-3

uSv/Bq  1.851E-2

Now let's calculate the dose for a specific case. For example, the first activity we measured for I-131 is 4.65 Bq/L. Using the DCF for millirem/Bq, we can easily calculate the total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) of I-131 per liter of water:

      (4.65 Bq/L) * (1.851E-3 millirem/Bq) = 8.61E-3 millirem/L

The TEDE from a typical flight from San Francisco to Washington DC and back is approximately 5 millirem. In order to determine the number of liters one would have to drink to receive this same dose, the dose received for the roundtrip flight is divided by the TEDE per liter:

      (5 millirem)/(8.61E-3 millirem/L) = 581 liters

Dose Conversion Factor Calculation: I-131 in Air

To calculate the Dose Conversion Factor (DCF) for I-131 in air, we take the definition of the 50 millirem limit in 2.4E6 liters (h) of air breathed by the reference man in one year to calculate the dose per liter of air breathed:

      (50 millirem) / (2.4E6 L) = 2.083E-5 millirem/L

Next, we use the ALI-derived concentration for I-131 in air of 2E-10 uCi/milliliter given in table 2 to calculate the total DCF for I-131 in air:

      (2.083E-5 millirem/L)/(2E-10 uCi/mL * (1000 mL/1 L)) = 104.2 millirem/uCi.

The activity we report for air is in Becquerel/liter (Bq/L). The conversion between Bq and uCi is 1 uCi = 37,000 Bq. So the DCF in units of millirem/Bq is:

      (104.2 millirem/uCi) * (1 uCi/3.7E4 Bq) = 2.816E-3 millirem/Bq

If you are used to using Sieverts (Sv) instead of millirems, by using the conversion of 1 millirem = 10 microSieverts (uSv), we get the DCF in yet another set of units:

      (104.2 millirem/uCi) * (10 uSv/1 millirem) = 1,042 uSv/uCi

      (2.816E-3 millirem/Bq) * (10 uSv/1 millirem) = 2.816E-2 uSv/Bq

So depending on the dose units (uSv or millirems) and activity units (uCi or Becquerels) that you prefer, there are four ways of expressing the Dose Conversion Factor for I-131 in air:

Units  DCF

millirem/uCi  104.2

uSv/uCi  1,042

millirem/Bq  2.816E-3

uSv/Bq  2.816E-2

Now let's calculate the dose for a specific case. For example, the first activity we measured for I-131 is 1.52E-6 Bq/L. Using the DCF for millirem/Bq, we can easily calculate the total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) of I-131 per liter of air breathed:

      (1.52E-6 Bq/L) * (2.816E-3 millirem/Bq) = 4.28E-9 millirem/L

Then using the average figure of 2.4E6 liters of air breathed per year, the TEDE if breathed continually for one year is:

      (4.28E-9 millirem/L) * (2.4E6 L/year) = 0.01027 millirem/year

The TEDE from a typical flight from San Francisco to Washington DC and back is approximately 5 millirem. In order to determine the number of years one would have to breathe to receive this same dose, the dose received for the roundtrip flight is divided by the average dose per year:

      (5 millirem)/(0.01027 millirem/year) = 489 years

[4:19:22 PM] David: Then by your numbers current calculation is every 1 day or 24 hours of exposure is equal to 489 years of dosage for radiation worker as if the world works for the NRC and or should have ALARA base

“Spewing from the Fukushima reactor are radioactive isotopes including those of iodine (I-131), strontium (Sr-90) and cesium (Cs-134 and Cs-137) all of which are taken up in food and water.

Radiation Poisoning Causes Mental Illness,
Diabetes, Hermaphroditism & CancersSeattle Exopolitics Examiner
Alfred Lambremont Webre
July 17, 2011

In an exclusive ExopoliticsTV interview (released July 17, 2011) with independent scientist Leuren Moret, MA, PhD (ABT) by Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd, Ms. Moret reveals that the hidden nuclear genocide of babies and children resulting from the March 11, 2011 Fukushima false flag tectonic event can now be documented and is growing.

Leuren Moret also released her court statement as an expert witness in a lawsuit brought to force government officials to evacuate more than 350,000 children from the Fukushima area where they are being forcibly exposed by the government to lethal doses of radiation. Ms. Moret’s court statement is reprinted below in this article as a public service.

Leuren Moret Court Statement in Koriyama City, Fukushima, Japan

In her court statement as part of a lawsuit in Japan to force the evacuation of more than 350,000 children from lethal levels of radiation in the Fukushima area, Leuren Moret states,

“FUKUSHIMA RADIATION EFFECTS THOUSANDS OF MILES ACROSS THE OCEAN

“The west coast of North America is thousands of miles across the vast Pacific Ocean, a long way from Fukushima Daiichi and the radioactive solids, liquids, and gases being released daily and recklessly to poison both near and far. Already we are seeing the effects in North America.

“Air filters from cars in Seattle have been analyzed for hot particles and indicate that Seattle residents are inhaling 5 hot particles a day, in Tokyo it is 10 hot particles a day, in Fukushima Prefecture it is 30-40 times higher - 300-400 hot particles a day.

“Hot particles and alpha emitters such as Uranium and Plutonium have not even been mentioned by the government or TEPCO, nor has their contribution to total radiation released been considered. Alpha particles are biologically 20 times more damaging than beta particles.

“Iodine 131 in drinking water in San Francisco was reported by UC Berkeley to be 18,100% times higher than the EPA drinking water standard, yet the US government quit measuring it.

“Infant mortality in Berkeley, CA, and other west coast cities was reported by Dr. Janette Sherman to have increased 35% since March 11, after the Fukushima disaster. The babies are the first to die.

“Infant mortality in Philadelphia, PA. where the highest Iodine 131 levels in drinking water measured in the US have been reported, has increased 45% since March 11.

People on the west coast of the United States and even in Arizona are reporting a metallic taste in their mouths – an indication of radioactive particles in the air as in Japan.

“On the night of June 14, a nuclear incident occurred in the Reactor 3 building in the spent fuel pool when huge bursts of gamma ray fluorescence lit up the night sky and turned the reactor building as bright as the sun, indicating the spent fuel rods and melted uranium and plutonium were boiling off, vaporized along with the rest of the fission products.

“The radiation from this unreported but very dangerous event was released without protecting the residents of Fukushima Prefecture – especially the children. But the radiation was detected at elevated levels from 2:30 AM until 7:30 AM on a monitor in Ibaraki Prefecture. How many Curies were released? When will this nuclear war against the Japanese people and the Northern Hemisphere ever end?

“Instead of evacuation, the government gives the children (sick with radiation symptoms) film badges to measure the external exposure dose… another study group like US govt. studies on Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims (they are still being studied), Iraq victims, Gaza victims. And the US government did the same thing to Americans during 1300 nuclear bomb tests in the US.”

Epidemiological Evidence of 35%+ Spike in Infant Mortality After Fukushima

In her ExopoliticsTV interview, Ms. Moret demonstrated that there has been a spike of 35% in infant mortality in the west coast of the United States and of Canada since the HAARP-triggered Fukushima event that can be reasonably attributed to the ionizing radiation ferried across the Pacific ocean and dumped on west coast U.S. and Canadian cities by HAARP-caused weather warfare.

Ms. Moret cites multiple articles by scientist Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano, documenting the 35% spike in infant mortality in west coast U.S. cities after Fukushima.

On June 9, 2011, Sherman and Mangano write, “The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:

4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 - 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)

10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 - 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week)

“This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster. In 2001 the infant mortality was 6.834 per 1000 live births, increasing to 6.845 in 2007. All years from 2002 to 2007 were higher than the 2001 rate.

“Spewing from the Fukushima reactor are radioactive isotopes including those of iodine (I-131), strontium (Sr-90) and cesium (Cs-134 and Cs-137) all of which are taken up in food and water. Iodine is concentrated in the thyroid, Sr-90 in bones and teeth and Cs-134 and Cs-137 in soft tissues, including the heart. The unborn and babies are more vulnerable because the cells are rapidly dividing and the delivered dose is proportionally larger than that delivered to an adult.”

Reference:

www.counterpunch.org/sherman06102011.html

On June 21, 2011, Scientific American published a nuclear apologist article by Michael Moyer (SCI AMERICAN: “Are Babies Dying in the Pacific Northwest Due to Fukushima? A Look at the Numbers” June 21, 2011 by Michael Moyer) attacking the results that scientists Sherman and Mangano had published on the 35% increase in infant mortality. Yet critics of the nuclear apologists cherry picked 4 cities (Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane) and calculated the infant mortality and came up with a 42% increase for those 4 cities. So the infant mortality spike due to Fukushima, Ms. Moret states, must be higher in the Northwest U.S. and Canada where there is higher rainfall.

On June 25, 2011, Sherman and Mangano confirm their 35% spike in infant mortality and write, “The current news indicates that radioactive fallout [from Fukushima] continues to spread across the hemisphere, blanketing oceans, lakes, farmland and cities – everywhere that people live, breathe and eat. We call for extensive monitoring of at least Cs-137, Sr-90, I-131, plutonium, and hot particles in food, water and air, across the U. S, with the data available to the public without delay.”

Reference:

sfbayview.com/2011/question-marks-the-elephant-in-the-room-and-the-refusal-of-nuclear-power-defenders-to-consider-what-has-happened-to-people-and-the-environment-since-fukushima-and-chernobyl/

Canadian government and CBC media continue radiation cover-up

Officials in Canada and the Canadian mainstream media, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) are continuing the radiation genocide coverup, Ms. Moret stated in her ExopoliticsTV interview.

A July 5, 2011 article by the CBC confirmed the spike in infant mortality in British Columbia Canada, as stated by the B.C. Coroner. The B.C. Coroner, however, blamed the spike in infant mortality in western Canada on parents and their sleeping habits with children, rather than do the obvious research into the effects of the Fukushima radiation on infant mortality in B.C., Canada.

The CBC, a government funded public media outlet on which many Canadians depend for their “reliable” news merely printed the B.C. Coroner’s fabrications without any independent research, which was available from Sherman and Mangano’s and other research of the radiation-related 35% spike (and higher) in such west coast cities of the U.S. as Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, which are contiguous to such B.C. cities as Victoria and Vancouver, B.C., and which would have received approximately the same amount of radiation-laden rainfall from Fukushima.

Below is the CBC article/B.C. Coroner’s radiation-coverup report. Compare it with Sherman and Mangano’s science-based analysis of the radiation caused growing baby genocide in the U.S. and Canada.

CBC writes, “B.C.'s chief coroner is urging parents to use safe sleep practices in light of a spike in the number of sudden infant deaths across the province this year. There have been 21 sudden infant deaths in B.C. so far this year, while there were 16 sudden infant deaths for all of 2010, Lisa Lapointe said Tuesday. Lapointe said that in most of this year's deaths, risk factors included babies sleeping with an adult, on a couch or a soft bed. Babies should be placed on their back in a crib with a fitted sheet, without a lot of puffy blankets or toys that could obscure their face, Lapointe said.

"We know there's been a spike in the first six months and we know it's related to unsafe sleep practices. Why so many of those [deaths] have come up this year, we don't know," Lapointe said. She said the reason for the increased number of deaths is all the more mysterious because health authorities, family doctors and public health nurses have kept up efforts to educate parents. The B.C. Coroner's Service is continuing to investigate the 21 deaths.”

Source:

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/05/bc-sudden-infant-deaths.html

Full text of Leuren Moret’s Court statement in lawsuit to force evacuation of more than 350,000 children from Fukushima

Statement of Leuren Moret, Independent Scientist

B.S. Geology UC Davis, M.A. Near Eastern Studies UC Berkeley, PhD Geosciences (ABD) UC Davis

Statement of Leuren Moret in relation to the provisional injunction against the Education Committee of Koryama City, Fukushima to evacuate the children from the radioactively contaminated area being filed on June 24, 2011.

I am making this urgent statement in support of a provisional injunction to evacuate children living in and attending schools in areas of Fukushima Prefecture that have been found to have unacceptably high levels of radiation as a result of the ongoing release of dangerous levels of radiation from fission products and reactor fuel released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was damaged by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 40 meter tsunami on March 11, 2011.

My expertise:

I am an international specialist on ionizing radiation, an independent scientist and educator, and the first woman to graduate with a BS in Geology from UC Davis, earned a Masters degree in Near Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley, and a PHD in the Geosciences from UC Davis (all but dissertation). I am the recipient of a UC President’s Mentoring Fellowship in the Sciences at UC Davis, and selected as one of the five most promising young scientists at UC Davis. I am the Past President of the Association for Women Geoscientists, an international women’s science organization, and have conducted scientific research and given talks in 50 countries on the effects of radiation on the environment and public health. I collected over 6000 baby teeth with the Radiation and Public Health Project, from children living in the US, UK, and Japan, within 100 miles of nuclear power plants, and we discovered that the radiation levels are higher today because of nuclear power pollution than during atmospheric bomb testing. Between 2000 and 2011, I made 20 speaking tours in Japan on radiation related issues. During a one-month speaking tour of Japan in 2005, Dr. Ernest Sternglass and I met with TEPCO officials, on the first day of operations at Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant in Aomori prefecture, to protest the impact on the environment and public health from highly radioactive emissions, releases, and accidents at the facility.

I have written and been interviewed widely on radiation issues in publications such as The Japan Times, the International Herald Tribune, the San Francisco Bay View, and wrote the Foreword to Akira Tashiro’s famous book Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium. I have also been in many radiation related documentaries, appeared on television (NHK, Press TV, Malaysian TV, Istanbul TV, KITV ABC Honolulu), and have many videos with radiation information posted on the Internet.

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I have been an official science advisor to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, provided scientific advice to members of the Japanese Parliament, and am an official expert witness on uranium issues for MP Alex Atamanenko in the Canadian Parliament. I have also been an expert witness on depleted uranium for the Tokyo International War Crimes Tribunal for Afghanistan in 2003, on the organizing committee of the Istanbul International War Crimes Tribunal for Iraq in 2003, and was invited to be a keynote speaker by Tun Dr. Mahathir, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, at the Kuala Lumpur International War Crimes Conference in 2007 and in 2009, and submitted two official Complaints on Depleted Uranium Weapons to the Kuala Lumpur International War Crimes Conference for Iraq in 2010.

Effects of radiation exposure from atmospheric bomb tests, Nuclear Power Plants, Chernobyl, and the Fukushima Disaster:

There is overwhelming evidence from vital statistics collected by many countries, of a large rise of chronic illnesses or free radical diseases, following open air testing of nuclear weapons. No country has a better record of vital statistics than Japan that extends back to 1899 and provides a baseline for health statistics before man-made radiation was introduced into the environment.

Japan government health statistics 1899-2003, chief causes of mortality.

Source: Japanese government vital health statistics 1899-2003

It is clear from this data that large increases in mortality from brain disease, heart disease, and cancer occurred in Japan with the introduction of each new nuclear technology following World War II. The US government did not allow the Japanese Government to report health statistics for three years following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in order to hide the horrific effects of ionizing radiation from the public. This important document also shows that the radiation body burden in the Japanese population has been cumulative since 1945, as additional radiation has been introduced into the environment each year, and ingested mainly in drinking water and dairy products.

In-utero exposure causes brain damage as well as in Japan, large increases in chronic illnesses in the United States were caused by contamination of the entire continental United States from nuclear bomb test rainout of radioactive nanoparticles, a large decrease by 12% in nationwide SAT scores (Scholastic aptitude tests) occurred in children born after 1945 who were exposed in-utero to low levels of ionizing radiation. Dr. Ernest Sternglass was able to show that the decline in SAT scores was directly related to the amount of fission products released each year from bomb tests. The SAT scores never recovered after bomb testing ended because nuclear power plant fission products replaced bomb testing radioactive pollution.

This graph on right illustrates the US average for SAT scores 1952-1994, taken the last year of high school (bottom axis), and year of birth (indicated on curve). The annual average decline in the scores inversely correlates with the total kiloton equivalent of nuke tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site the same year. The lower the SAT score, the more radiation released in that year from bomb testing at the NTS.

Source: E. J. Sternglass and S. Bell, “Fallout and SAT Scores; Evidence for Cognitive Damage During Early Infancy”, Phi Beta Kappa 64, 541-545 (1983).

Exposure to Nuclear Pollution Causes High Rates of Mental Illness

In 2004 the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published the results of a WHO global mental health survey. Again the results were shocking. The survey found that the US had the highest rate of mental illness in the world; over 26% of Americans have some form of mental illness. The effects of Chinese bomb testing in the Gobi desert were apparent in mental illness rates in Beijing (9.1%) and Japan (8.8%), directly downwind from the annual Gobi dust and sand storms, contaminated with bomb testing fission products. Mexico (12.2%) and Columbia (17.8%) were downwind from bomb tests on Christmas Island and Johnson Island in the Pacific, test sites that were 1000 miles upwind from Hawaii with the highest cancer rates in the US. Belgium (12.0%), France (18.4%), and the Netherlands (14.8%) are contaminated from their own nuclear power plants, or unlucky to be downwind and downstream from other sources. Lebanon (16.9%) was heavily contaminated by French nuclear tests in the Sahara desert, and from depleted uranium used in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan. The Ukraine (20.4%) is testimony to the tragic effects of Chernobyl in 1986. The population with the best mental health in the WHO survey was Nigeria, far from the bomb tests, and that's not all. Africa has the lowest diabetes rates in the world. There are almost no nuclear power plants in Africa.

Source: WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium: “Prevalence, Severity, and Unmet Need for Treatment of Mental Disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys”, JAMA June 2, 2004, V. 291 No. 21: 2581-2590. jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/291/21/2581/

Major Cause of Diabetes is Ionizing Radiation

Because uranium is a hormone and estrogen disruptor, it is one of the main causes of diabetes globally since 1945. All atomic and hydrogen bombs were composed of thousands of times more depleted uranium than the plutonium in the bomb core, making it the main atmospheric nuclear pollutant since 1945. The very large increase in diabetes beginning in 1991, with the introduction of US depleted uranium (DU) weaponry to the battlefield in GW I, is reflected in the global statistics and indicative of how pernicious and global the DU poisoning really is. It has been reported globally that the largest number of new cases of diabetes are diagnosed when the annual rainy seasons begin indicating that the cause of diabetes is in the atmosphere.

Large Increases in Autism Increased Dramatically with Introduction of Nuclear Power

Dr. Ernest Sternglass was able to compare the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity generated in California per year to the increase in autism incidence in California, and found that there was a direct causal relationship. The occurrence of autism is not diagnosed until the child is about five years old, so the time of diagnosis of large increases of autism was offset by about 5 years from the year of birth that indicated the brain damage was caused by in utero exposure of the fetus to ionizing radiation, even exposure to very low amounts. In recent studies, the incidence of autism in Washington, Oregon, and California has been linked to the presence of nuclear reactors and rainfall patterns. The largest number of new cases of autism is diagnosed when the annual rainy season starts, indicating that the cause is rainout of radioactive nanoparticles into the environment. In the United States the cost of treating an autistic child is very expensive.

Direct medical and nonmedical costs can add up to as much as $72,000 a year for someone with an extreme case of the disorder, and even $67,000 a year for those on the lower end of the spectrum, according to a study from the Harvard School of Public Health. The Cost of Autism, New York Times Jan. 22, 2010.

Infant mortality and childhood cancer rates drop when nuclear power plants are shut down

In our studies of diseases in children and babies living near nuclear power plants, by the Radiation and Public Health Project, we found a decrease of 54.1% in infant mortality after the closing of the Big Rock Point reactor in Michigan, and a 33.4% decline when the Maine Yankee reactor was shut down in Maine. After the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant was shut down in Sacramento, California, a decline in newly diagnosed leukemia and cancer cases and birth defect deaths in children under five years old in the four counties around the Rancho Seco plant continued to decline for seven years after the plant was closed in 1989. Dr. Sternglass said “We found to our amazement and shock that the levels of strontium 90 per gram of calcium in the teeth of new born babies… is as high as it was at the height of nuclear bomb testing.” The ONLY source today for Strontium 90 is nuclear power plants. Since the baby teeth form in the unborn child, the baby teeth serve as a dosimeter of in utero exposure to radiation. In the baby teeth I collected in Japan in 2005, the highest levels of Strontium 90 were in two Japanese babies born in Washington DC where dairy products are very high in radiation from dairies located near nuclear power plants. The rest of the baby teeth ranged from high to very low levels of Strontium 90, indicating that Diabetes death rates in Japan 1950-2004. This graph represents the global cumulative radiation effects, in death rates from diabetes, caused by atmospheric testing (1950-1963), nuclear power plants introduced in 1968, and depleted uranium introduced by the U.S. in GW I in 1991.

Source: Vital Statistics of Japan 2004 vol.1, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Health and Welfare Statistics Assoc., Table 5.15, p. 203 pregnant mothers had ingested food products and drinking water contaminated with varying levels of Strontium 90 and other fission products from nuclear power plants in Japan.

Chernobyl Rainout of Radiation Causes Breast Cancer Clusters in Japan and California

Dr. Shuntaro Hida was able to map breast cancer clusters across Japan after the Chernobyl plume passed over Japan on its way across the Pacific. By investigating weather patterns in Japan for that day, he was able to show that they occurred in areas where it rained that day. A similar pattern was reported north of San Francisco, in Marin County, California, and across California as the radioactive plume travelled east from the Bay Area and crossed over the mountains into Nevada. An ornithologist in Marin County, Dr. Dave De Sante, also reported high death rates in nesting birds that month, and the death rates were higher in birds that ate vegetable matter than in birds that ate insects. A further investigation of the areas in Japan and the US where the breast cancer clusters occurred, should identify increases in infant mortality, children’s cancer, diabetes and autism as well as other radiation related diseases. Below is a list of diseases caused by free radicals, produced in huge numbers in tissues contaminated with ionizing radiation:

Source: Free Radicals In Biology and Medicine 3rd Ed., B. Halliwell and J. Gutteridge, Oxford University Press (1999).

FUKUSHIMA RADIATION EFFECTS THOUSANDS OF MILES ACROSS THE OCEAN

The west coast of North America is thousands of miles across the vast Pacific Ocean, a long way from Fukushima Daiichi and the radioactive solids, liquids, and gases being released daily and recklessly to poison both near and far. Already we are seeing the effects in North America.

Air filters from cars in Seattle have been analyzed for hot particles and indicate that Seattle residents are inhaling 5 hot particles a day, in Tokyo it is 10 hot particles a day, in Fukushima Prefecture it is 30-40 times higher - 300-400 hot particles a day.

Hot particles and alpha emitters such as Uranium and Plutonium have not even been mentioned by the government or TEPCO, nor has their contribution to total radiation released been considered. Alpha particles are biologically 20 times more damaging than beta particles.

Iodine 131 in drinking water in San Francisco was reported by UC Berkeley to be 18,100% times higher than the EPA drinking water standard, yet the US government quit measuring it.

Infant mortality in Berkeley, and other west coast cities was reported by Dr. Janette Sherman to have increased 35% since March 11, after the Fukushima disaster. The babies are the first to die.

Infant mortality in Philadelphia, where the highest Iodine 131 levels in drinking water measured in the US have been reported, has increased 45% since March 11.

People on the west coast of the United States and even in Arizona are reporting a metallic taste in their mouths – an indication of radioactive particles in the air as in Japan.

On the night of June 14, a nuclear incident occurred in the Reactor 3 building in the spent fuel pool when huge bursts of gamma ray fluorescence lit up the night sky and turned the reactor building as bright as the sun, indicating the spent fuel rods and melted uranium and plutonium were boiling off, vaporized along with the rest of the fission products.

The radiation from this unreported but very dangerous event was released without protecting the residents of Fukushima Prefecture – especially the children. But the radiation was detected at elevated levels from 2:30 AM until 7:30 AM on a monitor in Ibaraki Prefecture. How many Curies were released? When will this nuclear war against the Japanese people and the Northern Hemisphere ever end?

Instead of evacuation, the government gives the children (sick with radiation symptoms) film badges to measure the external exposure dose… another study group like US govt. studies on Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims (they are still being studied), Iraq victims, Gaza victims. And the US government did the same thing to Americans during 1300 nuclear bomb tests in the US.

END OF COURT STATEMENT

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Fallout from Fukushima: Thousands of Deaths in the United States?

As many as 14,000 deaths in the United States this year may be due to radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan, according to new research in this month's International Journal of Health Services.  The authors cite a 4.46 percent increase in deaths in the 14 weeks after arrival of nuclear fallout to the U.S. from the March 11, 2011 disaster, over the same time period in 2010.  This is compared to a 2.34 percent increase in the 14 weeks prior to the reactor meltdown.

The study was conducted by epidemiologist Joseph Mangano and toxicologist Janette Sherman, who was also a contributing editor to a 2009 publication on the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. The authors say they conducted their research to determine if the U.S. death rate changed in the months following the disaster.

According to the paper, the airborne radioactive plume reached the United States six days after the meltdown.  Subsequent monitoring of precipitation, milk, water and air by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found inconsistent levels of fallout across several American cities, ranging from values hundreds of times greater than the norm in Boise, Idaho (390 picocuries of iodine-131 per liter in precipitation vs normal levels of about 2 picocuries per liter), to barely detectable levels in other centers in the country.

EPA data was only 'sporadically' reported and not conclusive, according to the authors, but available figures of subsequent mortalities from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are more comprehensive and give greater clues into the effect of the fallout in the United States.  Of special significance, the total number of infant deaths across the country rose 1.8 percent from the year before, compared with an 8.37 percent decrease in the prior 14-week period.  Infants and unborn fetuses are particularly vulnerable to radiation exposure than older children and adults, because their immune systems are immature and less able to fight off disease.  In adults, exposure to radioactive iodine can cause thyroid disease including cancer, and premature aging on a cellular level.

Mangano and Sherman's conclusions are being disputed within the radiation research community.  Radiation injury expert Fred Mettler, the U.S. representative for the United Nation's Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR),  says the report 'doesn't hang together.'  To establish that one event caused another, researchers have to show a correlation between the two, something he says is lacking in this paper.  "If fallout of radioactive iodine caused instant infant death in this country, what was the mechanism of that death?  And did the incidence of those deaths decline when the radioactive iodine levels did?" he asks.  "There's a big difference between association and causality."

This study also refers to an increase in Sudden Infant Deaths reported in the western-most Canadian province of British Columbia - from 16 cases in 2010 to 31 so far in 2011.  While the B.C. Coroner's office acknowledges radiation exposure could be a factor in these deaths, there is no immediate evidence of such a link.

Read more:

Chernobyl's Continuing Thyroid Impact

EPA Understand the Health Effects of Radiation

Radiation Dose Chart

We live in a radioactive world - humans always have. Radiation is part of our natural environment. We are exposed to radiation from materials in the earth itself, from naturally occurring radon in the air, from outer space, and from inside our own bodies (as a result of the food and water we consume). This radiation is measured in units called millirems (mrems).

The average dose per person from all sources is about 620 mrems per year. It is not, however, uncommon for any of us to receive less or more than that in a given year (largely due to medical procedures we may undergo). International Standards allow exposure to as much as 5,000 mrems a year for those who work with and around radioactive material.

The interactive Dose Chart appears below, but you can also download a printable version.

For an interactive version of the Dose Chart which is based on the internationally recognized units (Sieverts and millisieverts) go here.

Fukushima News:

Fukushima News

As you are well aware, on 11 March 2011 the Japanese experienced the worst earthquake in their history, followed by a devastating tsunami. These natural disasters have had a serious impact on several Japanese nuclear reactors, principally those at the Fukushima Daiichi site. The Health Physics Society (HPS) is concerned about radiation exposures associated with these reactor problems and desires to keep our members and the concerned public advised on current events associated with the Japanese nuclear plants.


The Health Physics Society (HPS) convened a panel of leading scientific experts on radiation safety at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on 1 March 2012 for the benefit of invited media personnel. The name of the program was "Risks and Effects of Radiation: Putting Fukushima in Context." Read more here.

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