Fishermen test their own salmon for Fukushima radiation
It’s difficult to say what’s going on with fish and other marine life since the Fukushima incident. There have been reports about radiation poisoning the west coast of North America and tainting (or killing) fish, followed by reports that there’s nothing to fear.It worth considering that it’s in any government’s playbook to downplay the crisis. See:
While Slowing BP Oil Spill, Administration Slowed Flow Of Information Too
White House blocked ’worst case’ oil spill figures
Secrecy agreement between Fukushima and IAEA revealed by Tokyo newspaper
In addition, Loki Fish Co., a fishing company in Seattle, has published results of radiation tests done on their salmon catch. What fishing company would want to be known as the company that sold radioactive fish to their customers? Can we rely on their findings? What does it say for companies that don’t test?
More testing will certainly bring transparency, and it pays for the customer to ask questions about where their fish and other food is coming from, and look for answers about the quality and safety. As reported by Motherboard, the Center for Marine and Environmental Radiation is encouraging citizen scientists to send water for analysis, to hopefully provide clarity, and to sound warnings if need be.
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Fishermen test their own salmon for Fukushima radiation
By Rebekah Denn | The Seattle Times
Is it safe to eat fish from the Pacific Ocean in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster? The consensus since the 2011 power plant failure has been a yes, but Seattle’s Loki Fish Co. found customers remained concerned.The fishing company, a local institution, went on to do its own testing for radiation levels in its fish, and shared the laboratory reports online. (The short version: The fish were fine.)
“We were getting so much blowback from customers that have just been reading incredibly paranoid stuff on the Internet,” said Pete Knutson, co-founder of the family-owned business. Beyond some of the “off the charts” fears, though, he understands why people would be concerned, and he’s always interested in knowing how pure his own products are. The decision: “Let’s just do the testing and let the chips fall where they may.”
It helped his decision that he could find no specifics from public agencies like the FDA, which simply says on its website that “to date, FDA has no evidence that radionuclides from the Fukushima incident are present in the U.S. food supply at levels that would pose a public health concern.”
After the $1,200 endeavor, Loki’s web page reported that “All seven stocks of salmon were tested for the radionuclides associated with the nuclear plant failures in Japan: Cesium 134, Cesium 137, and Iodine 131. Of the seven samples, five did not register detectable levels of radionuclides. Two of the samples registered at trace levels – Alaskan Keta at 1.4Bq/kg for Cesium 137, and Alaskan Pink at 1.2Bq/kg for Cesium 134. There were no detectable levels of iodine-131 in any samples.
“To put those numbers in perspective, the critical limit set by the FDA for either Cesium-134 or Cesium-137 is 370 Bq/kg, far above the amount found in Loki’s Alaskan Keta and Pink salmon.”
The full lab testing reports can also be downloaded from the page. (There was also a certain amount of both natural and man-made radioactivity in the ocean pre-Fukushima.)
Is that enough to ease the minds of diners? One customer on the Loki Facebook page wrote “A. it’s only January. B. keep testing.” Another warned that “it would be unrealistic to tell people afraid of the radiation on the basis of one test that the fish is safe forever.”
Knutson said that “I tell people, this isn’t conclusive, it’s only 7 samples, but it’s a random sampling,” not one that could have been gamed in any way. At the least, “it makes me feel better.”
Bellingham-based Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics, which sells fish online, has had fish tested several times with similar results. Knutson wasn’t aware of anyone else doing so, but thinks such moves might be more common in the future. His son, Dylan, faced regular queries about the radiation issue at Loki’s farmers market tables, though those customers are “a pretty motivated group that’s interested in chain of custody,” and perhaps more likely to raise the issue.
People are “not fully confident the government’s telling the truth,” or that corporations are telling the truth, he said. Sharing such direct data from producer to customer, he said, might just be “where the future of food is.”
Article from: seattletimes.com
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Government, Media Cover Up Fukushima Radiation Wave Hitting US
by Anthony Gucciardi | Prison Planet
As radiation levels spike and mutated wildlife washes ashore, government and media promote delusion.
Radiation hot spots are popping up around the United States thousands of percentages higher than ‘background radiation’, mutated wildlife is being found dead on the same West Coast beaches where increased radiation levels have been documented by independent researchers and the Fukushima TEPCO plant workers have been caught using duct tape to fix their nuclear equipment. But according to both the Japanese and United States governments, these events mean absolutely nothing.
In fact, you must be a conspiracy theorist if you fail to believe the official story that it was likely red-painted utensils that led to a spike in documented radiation levels along the California coast (yes, the government actually offered this up as an official answer). And you must absolutely be a conspiracy theorist if you have the gall to actually look back to late 2011, when researchers presented their findings regarding the impending wave of Fukushima radiation that was already being recorded within the country.
Information going back to 2011 shows that scientists were already concerned about an increase in radiation levels and the overall fallout from the delapidated Fukushima plant. We can even go back to the declaration by scientist Marco Kaltofen of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute that radioactive ‘hot particles’ had been found at 2 out of the 3 radiation monitoring stations in Boston. As you are likely aware, hot particles are microscopic pieces of radioactive material that can absolutely wreak havoc on your body via the deliverance of concentrated radiation.
And these particles, according to Kaltofen, were already being found in Boston as far back as 2011.
Now enter a new flurry of stories that have seemingly been popping up one after another as radiation levels are continually being monitored around the nation — namely the West Coast, where the bulk of Fukushima-linked scenarios have been documented. In what sounds like an apocalyptic plot for the latest thriller film, we have mutated whales now washing up dead on the West Coast in the first ever documented case of conjoined gray whale calves. We even have elevated radiation readings as far away as St. Louis, Missouri.
Coincidentily, of course, this is happening at the same time that radiation hot spots exceeding a 1,400% increase over ‘normal’ levels are being reported by researchers. It’s even happening at the same time that similar 500% increases have been disregarded by government officials who admit they have no idea what’s going on but fervently deny any connection to Fukushima in any capacity whatsoever. In fact, that has always been the mantra of these government health officials: We have no idea what’s really going on, but it’s definitely not Fukushima!
Because just as the Japanese government has assured its citizens that Fukushima is perfectly safe and poses no real threat to your health while secretly reviewing studies that reveal the plant released massively more radiation than admitted and led to 78% of the radioactive waste being dumped into the Pacific Ocean, the United States government would much rather silently purchase 14 million doses of potassium iodide than tell you that there may be some cause for concern.
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Read the full article at: prisonplanet.com
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Fish testing at 124 times over radiation limit caught off Fukushima
From: RT
Fish with deadly levels of radioactive cesium have been caught just off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, as scientists continue to assess the damage caused to the marine food chain by the 2011 nuclear disaster.
One of the samples of the 37 black sea bream specimens caught some 37 kilometers south of the crippled power plant tested at 12,400 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, making it 124 times deadlier than the threshold considered safe for human consumption, Japan’s Fisheries Research Agency announced.
The samples were caught at the mouth of the Niidagawa river in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on November 17. Two other fish caught there also tested non-safe for human consumption, showing radiations levels of 426 and 197 becquerels per kilogram. The rest of the fish were reportedly within safety limits.
Black sea bream are currently restricted from being fished in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures and sold for human consumption, as scientists from the Fisheries Research Agency say they plan to investigate the source of the contamination further.
After the Fukushima disaster, Japan lowered its threshold for cesium levels in food from 500 becquerels per kg to 100 becquerels per kilo, making the country’s regulations six times stricter than European Union standards. The record cesium reading was recorded last year when a fish caught near the plant carried 740,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.
Professor Chris Busby from the Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk and a member of the UK Department of Health Committee Examining Radiation Risk for Internal Emitters (CERRIE), says that despite a high level of radiation in the marine food chain, Japan so far is the only one dealing with a direct threat.
“The concentrations of radionuclides, which are going to the Pacific or have been injected to the Pacific, by the time they get to the US, and to China and to South East Korea and so on will not be enormously high,” Busby told Voice of Russia.
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Read the full article at: rt.com
