The danger is highlighted in a report written by radiation experts for the UK government, which has been leaked to New Scientist. The experts are unanimous in saying that low-level radiation emitted by plutonium may cause more damage to human cells than previously believed. Their opinion could provoke a rethink of the guidelines on exposure to radiation.
Concern over the harmfulness of plutonium is growing because of discoveries about the subtle effects of low-level radiation. Researchers in Europe and North America have shown that the descendants of cells that seem to survive radiation unharmed can suffer delayed damage, a phenomenon called "genomic instability" (New Scientist print edition, 20 January 2001).
Bystander effect:
Cells adjacent to those that are irradiated can also sustain damage, known as "the bystander effect". And an increase was found in the number of mutations in small pieces of DNA called mini-satellites that are passed from one generation to the next. The fear is that these effects could trigger cancers and other ill effects.
The report, which is due to be published in the next few months, has been drawn up by the Committee Examining Radiation Risks from Internal Emitters (CERRIE). The committee includes 12 specialists from the UK government's National Radiological Protection Board, the nuclear industry, universities and environmental groups.
All members of the committee agree that the margin of uncertainty over the risks of plutonium and similar radionuclides inside the body "could extend over at least an order of magnitude".
This "should be borne in mind by those making judgements and policy decisions on low-level internal radiation", says CERRIE's chairman, Dudley Goodhead, the former director of the UK Medical Research Council's Radiation and Genome Stability Unit at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
Dumping of Plutonium in the "Pacific Ocean"
People are coming down with deadly illnesses and Cancer and they wonder why?
Maybe it's about time that the U.S. Government come out with the truth.
More than four decades after the U.S. halted a controversial ocean dumping program, the country is facing a mostly forgotten Cold War legacy in its waters: tens of thousands of steel drums of atomic waste.
From 1946 to 1970, federal records show, 55-gallon drums and other containers of nuclear waste were pitched into the Atlantic and Pacific at dozens of sites off California, Massachusetts and a handful of other states. Much of the trash came from government-related work, ranging from mildly contaminated lab coats to waste from the country's effort to build nuclear weapons.
Federal officials have long maintained that, despite some leakage from containers, there isn't evidence of damage to the wider ocean environment or threats to public health through contamination of seafood. But a Wall Street Journal review of decades of federal and other records found unanswered questions about a dumping program once labeled "seriously substandard" by a senior Environmental Protection Agency official:
• How much of various types of radioisotopes are in the waste containers? While some isotopes are short-lived, others remain radioactive for hundreds or thousands of years.
• Has evidence of radioactive contamination in fish been adequately pursued? A 1983 California law calling for fish testing and annual reports on a major dump site off San Francisco produced just one state report, in 1991, even though that study found fish contamination and recommended follow-up research.
• Where are all the containers—whose numbers top 110,000, by one federal count—on the sea floor, even at known dump sites? For instance, an estimated 47,000 containers lie at the site near San Francisco. Though there were three designated dump areas for the containers, "many were not dropped on target," according to a 2010 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which called the waste site a "potentially significant resource threat."
Much of the site—about 50 miles west of San Francisco, near the Farallon Islands—is within a national marine sanctuary that the federal government describes as "a globally significant" ecosystem "that supports abundant wildlife and valuable fisheries." Only about 15% of an estimated 540 square miles of sea floor containing the barrels, at depths from 300 to over 6,000 feet, has been evaluated, the NOAA report said.
In a recent response to questions, NOAA said it wants to further study the dump site but lacks the funds. Representatives of federal agencies recently contacted reiterated that the evidence collected over the years shows that the dump sites aren't posing any threat to the environment or the public.
Concerned about the Farallon site, the California legislature passed the 1983 law calling for fish sampling in the area, where commercial fishing occurs. A spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health said the law only required reports as funds were available, and they haven't been since 1991. Plus, she said, researchers "didn't find anything in the first survey."
Fukushima – Plutonium Radiation on SEAFOOD in the Pacific Ocean
The best advise for EVERYONE is to STOP EATING SEAFOOD all together. The contamination from the BP oil and corexit toxins have been carried to every ocean around the world by the oceans conveyor belt. Now there are 100,000′s of tons of radioactive water seeping back in to the Pacific Ocean. Now, on a molecular level the contaminated ocean water from both environmental disasters evaporates and rises into the upper atmosphere to come back down in the rain, eventually contaminating every body of water around the globe.
Which is why nuclear energy and weapons should be outlawed immediately.
Uploaded by freedom4kaz on Mar 29, 2011
FISHERMEN AND SEAFOOD SUPPLIERS DELIVER APPROXIMATELY 300 SPECIES TO MARKET EACH YEAR, FROM THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
Tablets only protect us against Iodine 131, not against Cesium 134, 137, Plutonium, Uranium, and Strontium 90 radioactive particles. It’s not a surprise that the gov’ts hasn’t been more forth coming with the true readings of the radiation. After all, the Gulf Oil Spill is supposed to all cleaned up now and of course the 9 11 first responders, fire fighters, police officers and volunteer workers all have cancer or have already passed. All the while the EPA said everything was OK!!
Uploaded by freedom4kaz on Mar 29, 2011
Fukushima Japan plutonium radiation and the Pacific Ocean
Facts In BriefFISHERMEN AND SEAFOOD SUPPLIERS DELIVER APPROXIMATELY 300 SPECIES TO MARKET EACH YEAR, FROM THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
Tablets only protect us against Iodine 131, not against Cesium 134, 137, Plutonium, Uranium, and Strontium 90 radioactive particles. It’s not a surprise that the gov’ts hasn’t been more forth coming with the true readings of the radiation. After all, the Gulf Oil Spill is supposed to all cleaned up now and of course the 9 11 first responders, fire fighters, police officers and volunteer workers all have cancer or have already passed. All the while the EPA said everything was OK!!
Seafood species harvested in the Pacific Ocean:
(Some of the species listed are found in other bodies of water as well. If it was a species found in the Pacific Ocean, it made the list!!)
California Prawns, Pacific Pink Shrimp, Sea Urchins, California Market Squid, Bluenose, Gulf Corvina, Flounder, Grenadier, Grouper, Pacific Halibut, Alaska Pollock, Spiny Lobster, Mahi Mahi, Blue Marlin, Mussels, Octopus, Alaska Plaice, Pomfret, Pacific Sanddabs, Scad, Sea Scallops, Sea Urchin Roe, Snapper, Shortbill Spearfish, Squid, Trevally and White Seabass.
Major Fish Species Native to Californiahttp://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/facts/species.htm
U.S. Seafood Industry Braces For Japan Crisis Impacthttp://www.npr.org/2011/03/18/134653667/u-s-seafood-industry-braces-for-japan…
Commercial Fisherieshttp://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingcommercial.main
Radiation in seawater may be spreading in Japanhttp://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/03/28/general-as-japan-earthquake_8377745…
Toxic plutonium seeping from Japan’s nuclear planthttp://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5if_xtzBgm4PZ3y7qVfCR3MHreS8…
Japan’s nuclear troubles grew worse still today, even as confirmed deaths from the earthquake and tsunami topped 11,000. Officials reported radioactive water has spread beyond a damaged reactor building, and radiation has also gotten into the ground.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/japan_03-28.html
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