Low levels of radiation found in US milk

[joeybee12]

WASHINGTON – Very low levels of radiation turned up in a sample of milk from Washington state, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, but federal officials assured consumers not to worry.

The FDA said such findings were to be expected in the coming days because of the nuclear crisis in Japan, and that the levels were expected to drop relatively quickly.

Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex began leaking radiation after it was damaged by a devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.

Results from a March 25 milk sample taken from Spokane, Wash., showed levels of radioactive Iodine-131 that were still 5,000 times below levels of concern set by the FDA, including levels set for infants and children.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110330/ap_on_re_us/us_japan_earthquake_us_milk

[existentialist]

1. Iodine 131 will break down quickly, Strontium 90 not so quickly.

Iodine 131 has a half life of just over 8 days. Therefore in four months less than one part in one million of the iodine 131 released will still be radioactive, and in less than a year no detectable trace of the iodine 131 released will still exist as iodine 131. precisely because the half life is so short its radiation is intense while it persists, but it doesn't persist long.

Strontium 90, another radioactive isotope that is necessarily released from radiation leaks at nuclear plants is another story. It has a half life of almost 29 years. It will be significantly diminished during the expected life times of people presently alive, but it will persist as a threat on some level for centuries.

There are lots of other radioisotopes released too, with half lives from milliseconds to billions of years.

The Iodine 131 and the Strontium 90 are of particular interest because they tend to be taken up by green plants, and to be concentrated higher in the food chain. Therefore they are of particular concern.

[joeybee12]

2. Interesting...thanks.

[grahamhgreen]

3. This way you don't have to warm it up before you give it to baby!

:sarcasm: