The FDA claims there is no need to test Pacific fish for Japan nuclear radiation reports the Anchorage Daily News but when drilled on details by the reporter refuse to answer questions and give the reported the run around. The FDA says there will be no testing of fish until NOAA testing finds cause for alarm but NOAA refuses to answer questions on what kind of monitoring has been done.
JAPAN MELTDOWN: Ocean too huge, distance too far for concern.
By RICHARD MAUER
Published: April 16th, 2011 10:21 PM
Last Modified: April 16th, 2011 10:22 PM
North Pacific fish are so unlikely to be contaminated by radioactive material from the crippled nuclear plant in Japan that there’s no reason to test them, state and federal officials said this week.
Even with dangerous levels of radiation reported recently just off the coast from the Fukushima reactor complex, the ocean is so huge and Alaska fisheries so far away that there is no realistic threat, said FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey. The Food and Drug Administration has oversight of the nation’s food supplies.
The state’s food safety program manager, Ron Klein of the Department of Environmental Conservation, said the FDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have demonstrated that Alaskans have no cause for worry.
“Based on the work they’re doing, no sampling or monitoring of our fish is necessary,” he said.
It’s now a little more than a month into the nuclear crisis, and Japanese officials believe they have plugged the major leak that allowed tons of water containing highly radioactive isotopes of iodine and cesium to flow into the sea. Radiation levels went down after the alarming reports last week that they had risen to millions of times the legal limits, though on Saturday officials said the levels were rising again.
A portable radiation monitor on emergency deployment to Dutch Harbor by the EPA recorded the highest levels of iodine-131 of any of the 100-plus monitors in the EPA’s RadNet system. Those readings were taken March 19, of 2.42 picocuries per cubic meter of air, and March 20, of 2.8 picocuries…
In addition to the filters, which in the case of the Anchorage monitor are collected and sent to Alabama two times a week, the monitors continually check for raw beta and gamma radiation and reports it to the RadNet system by satellite. In Anchorage, those readings have been consistently within the background range established before the March 11 earthquake.
Still, the city said this week it intends to sample its reservoir at Eklutna for radioactive isotopes when the ice goes out, which typically happens in mid-May.
Alaska is the nearest U.S. state to Japan, and fish caught by U.S. fishermen in the 200-mile economic zone swim even closer. That has prompted some fears, particularly in Europe, that Alaska fish could be contaminated.
Fick said he believed Alaska fish, in particular in Germany and Austria, have got caught up in anti-nuclear politics. In fact, the Green Party in Germany, campaigning in regional elections, used the nuclear issue late last month to take over the state government in prosperous Baden-Wurttemberg, where conservatives had ruled for more than 50 years. There’s a lot of Alaska pollock sold as fish sticks throughout Germany, and fear of them could be trouble, Fick said.
Closer to home, Dannon Southall of 10th and M Seafoods, said customers have expressed some concern, but not enough to stop buying fish. Virtually all of what he sells now — from Alaska waters or imported — was caught and frozen before the March 11 earthquake, he said. As new supplies replace the old, he expects imported fish especially to be tested if they come from waters close to Japan.
As for the sea in the region near Fukushimi, only octopus and eel from there had been imported to Alaska in the past, and that was mainly for sushi, he said.
DeLancey, the FDA spokeswoman, said those Japanese fishermen were disrupted by the tsunami and are no longer fishing anyway.
As for U.S. fish, she said, “We have not been doing any testing. We’ve been working with NOAA to keep an eye on U.S. waters, to see if there is any cause for alarm, and we do have the capability to begin testing if that does occur.”
Asked to explain what kind of monitoring was taking place in the ocean, DeLancey said, “You would have to talk directly to NOAA … I don’t really want to speak for another agency.”
But NOAA fisheries spokeswoman Kate Naughton declined to answer questions and referred a reporter back to DeLancey and the EPA.
Source: Anchorage Daily News
As previously I previously reported Japan has reported record levels of radiation in the Pacific Ocean:
JAPAN MELTDOWN: Ocean too huge, distance too far for concern.
By RICHARD MAUER
Published: April 16th, 2011 10:21 PM
Last Modified: April 16th, 2011 10:22 PM
North Pacific fish are so unlikely to be contaminated by radioactive material from the crippled nuclear plant in Japan that there’s no reason to test them, state and federal officials said this week.
Even with dangerous levels of radiation reported recently just off the coast from the Fukushima reactor complex, the ocean is so huge and Alaska fisheries so far away that there is no realistic threat, said FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey. The Food and Drug Administration has oversight of the nation’s food supplies.
The state’s food safety program manager, Ron Klein of the Department of Environmental Conservation, said the FDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have demonstrated that Alaskans have no cause for worry.
“Based on the work they’re doing, no sampling or monitoring of our fish is necessary,” he said.
It’s now a little more than a month into the nuclear crisis, and Japanese officials believe they have plugged the major leak that allowed tons of water containing highly radioactive isotopes of iodine and cesium to flow into the sea. Radiation levels went down after the alarming reports last week that they had risen to millions of times the legal limits, though on Saturday officials said the levels were rising again.
A portable radiation monitor on emergency deployment to Dutch Harbor by the EPA recorded the highest levels of iodine-131 of any of the 100-plus monitors in the EPA’s RadNet system. Those readings were taken March 19, of 2.42 picocuries per cubic meter of air, and March 20, of 2.8 picocuries…
In addition to the filters, which in the case of the Anchorage monitor are collected and sent to Alabama two times a week, the monitors continually check for raw beta and gamma radiation and reports it to the RadNet system by satellite. In Anchorage, those readings have been consistently within the background range established before the March 11 earthquake.
Still, the city said this week it intends to sample its reservoir at Eklutna for radioactive isotopes when the ice goes out, which typically happens in mid-May.
Alaska is the nearest U.S. state to Japan, and fish caught by U.S. fishermen in the 200-mile economic zone swim even closer. That has prompted some fears, particularly in Europe, that Alaska fish could be contaminated.
Fick said he believed Alaska fish, in particular in Germany and Austria, have got caught up in anti-nuclear politics. In fact, the Green Party in Germany, campaigning in regional elections, used the nuclear issue late last month to take over the state government in prosperous Baden-Wurttemberg, where conservatives had ruled for more than 50 years. There’s a lot of Alaska pollock sold as fish sticks throughout Germany, and fear of them could be trouble, Fick said.
Closer to home, Dannon Southall of 10th and M Seafoods, said customers have expressed some concern, but not enough to stop buying fish. Virtually all of what he sells now — from Alaska waters or imported — was caught and frozen before the March 11 earthquake, he said. As new supplies replace the old, he expects imported fish especially to be tested if they come from waters close to Japan.
As for the sea in the region near Fukushimi, only octopus and eel from there had been imported to Alaska in the past, and that was mainly for sushi, he said.
DeLancey, the FDA spokeswoman, said those Japanese fishermen were disrupted by the tsunami and are no longer fishing anyway.
As for U.S. fish, she said, “We have not been doing any testing. We’ve been working with NOAA to keep an eye on U.S. waters, to see if there is any cause for alarm, and we do have the capability to begin testing if that does occur.”
Asked to explain what kind of monitoring was taking place in the ocean, DeLancey said, “You would have to talk directly to NOAA … I don’t really want to speak for another agency.”
But NOAA fisheries spokeswoman Kate Naughton declined to answer questions and referred a reporter back to DeLancey and the EPA.
Source: Anchorage Daily News
As previously I previously reported Japan has reported record levels of radiation in the Pacific Ocean:
Record Levels of Fukushima Japan Nuclear Radiation Detected In Pacific Ocean Will Be Carried Toward US
Record levels of japan nuclear radiation have been found in the Pacific Ocean off the Fukushima, Japan Coast. The radiation is expected carried toward the US by fast-moving currents.
NHK news reports record levels of radiation in the ocean off the coast of Fukushima have been detected.
NHK also reports that the radioactive material is expected to be carried East Toward the US in a fast-moving ocean current.
Diffusion of radioactive substances predicted
Japan’s science ministry says radioactive substances will continue to diffuse to the northeast in the Pacific Ocean for several days after being released from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The ministry conducted a computer-simulated prediction of movements of such substances, based on a seawater survey as well as data on currents in nearby waters.
On April 2nd, levels of radioactive iodine-131 near the water intake of the plant’s No. 2 reactor were found to be 7.5 million times higher than the legal limit.
The ministry says the radiation levels are on the decline, but remain high.
The ministry’s short-term prediction says the substances will spread from the coast to the northeast, maintaining their levels for several days.
The ministry’s long-term prediction says the substances will be carried south by a current 100 kilometers offshore in lowered concentrations, then move east with a rapidly-moving current off Ibaraki Prefecture in about a month.
The ministry said the concentration of radioactive substances in the sea is likely to decrease gradually.
The ministry plans to step up monitoring of the movement of radioactive substances in waters around the plant and release another prediction.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 19:44 +0900 (JST)
Source: NHK
The only problem with that projection now is TEPCO has now dumped over 20 million gallons of radioactive seawater and continue to do so, every day they saying they will stop tomorrow.
Tepco has also indicated that they are running out of on-site storage space and may need to start dumping even more radioactive waste into the Pacific ocean.
I guess that this is not a surprise after the FDA said there is no concern to human life from eating fish with radiation 24 times the FDA limit for radiation in fish or given the fact that the EPA has just switched from their own standard of radiation which allows for cancer fatalities in 1 out of a million over to an FDA standard which allows for fatalities from cancer in 1 in 2,200 just so they can say levels of radiation being detected are still below levels of concern.
No comments:
Post a Comment