[Coral-List] Keven Reed: Disturbing news for the Pacific (Maryland & Pennsylvania)

Jack Sobel jack_sobel at verizon.net
Thu Aug 29 16:40:37 EDT 2013


A short note on Keven Reed's post to regarding "Disturbing news for the
Pacific (Fukushima).  I have not followed the Fukishima radioactive issue
closely, but as a Maryland homeowner, I know a lot about his reference to
"places in states like Maryland and Pennsylvania where one has to place a
radiation detector to measure the natural background radiation from the
rocks around a basement before closing a real estate deal on a private home
sale".  He is referring to indoor radon contamination caused by naturally
occurring radioactive materials below homes, which is not the same as
natural background radiation.  I don't know why he raised this issue, but
his implication seemed to be that, since there are high levels of naturally
occurring radioactivity in some areas of the U.S., we shouldn't be so
concerned about anthropogenic sources such as Fukushima.  This logic doesn't
make sense to me.  The health threats related to indoor radon contamination
from natural sources are real and serious.  The resulting indoor air radon
levels in such contaminated homes can exceed 20 pCi/L.  Radon is the number
one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, according to EPA estimates.
Overall, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer.  Radon is
responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year in the U.S.  I do
not know how serious the contamination threat from Fukushima is to the U.S.,
but if it poses a threat at all similar to that from naturally occurring
radon, it should be taken very seriously.  The good news about indoor radon
contamination from natural sources is that it can be easily remediated.

Jack Sobel
4910 Earlston Drive
Bethesda, MD  20816
(301)320-0880
(202)262-6926
jack_sobel at verizon.net


Message: 3
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 21:24:36 -0400
From: "Keven Reed" <reedkc at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Distressing news for the whole Pacific
	Ocean.
To: "MelissaE Keyes" <melissae.keyes at yahoo.com>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <29AABFD58CA545F182B7CA081FA2D89B at VALUED664B84C7>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="utf-8"

Dear Melissa and younger coral-listers,

    To add to Professor Szmant's post and perspective, many Americans have
forgotten that tourists used to go to the upper floors of the Las Vegas
hotels to glimpse mushroom clouds north of Las Vegas.  I was within 500
miles of 100 nuclear atmospheric tests/explosions by age 11 between early
1951 to July 17, 1962.  The plutonium tests started in 1955.  I was
fortunate to live west of the Sierra Nevadas and north of Nevada in southern
Idaho during most of those years, so I was usually upwind so to speak.

    This perspective is not to diminish the mistakes of the past or the
present or anyone's suffering in Japan or in the desert southwestern USA,
but I agree with Alina that one does not need to panic about their personal
safety if they are living on the New World/American continents.  My wife is
Japanese, BTW.  While cesium in plants and milk around the world is a
concern, just do the math & physics, convert the rads/rems (the old units I
grew up on) in to the newer SI units of Grays (Gy).  Approx' 400 rads or
rems of gamma equal approx' 4 Gy.

    While 8 Gy whole body absorption is 100% fatal for humans, we routinely
treat tumors with focused energy beams in the tens of Grays!

Fukushima is a very serious environmental problem, but look at the actual
numbers on the radiation detectors on our West Coast before climbing out of
one's skin.  Remember there are places in states like Maryland and
Pennsylvania where one has to place a radiation detector to measure the
natural background radiation from the rocks around a basement before closing
a real estate deal on a private home sale.

Thanks for bringing this matter to everyone's consciousness again.

Keven

Keven C. Reed in Fleming Island, FL
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: MelissaE Keyes
  To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
  Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 12:38 PM
  Subject: [Coral-List] Distressing news for the whole Pacific Ocean.


  Hello, Listers,

  I dislike sending this, but I feel it is important information. Quoted
from:

 
http://www.collapsingintoconsciousness.com/at-the-very-least-your-days-of-ea
ting-pacific-ocean-fish-are-over/

  The heart-breaking news from Fukushima just keeps getting worse?a LOT
worse?it is, quite simply, an out-of-control flow of death and destruction.
TEPCO is finally admitting that radiation has been leaking to the Pacific
Ocean all along. and it?s NOT over?.

  It now appears that anywhere from 300 to possibly over 450 tons of
contaminated water that contains radioactive iodone, cesium, and
strontium-89 and 90, is flooding into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima
Daichi site everyday. To give you an idea of how bad that actually is,
Japanese experts estimate Fukushima?s fallout at 20-30 times as high as as
the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings in 1945.

  Map at the above available in the article in the link.

  Cheers,

  Melissa Keyes
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Melissa E. Keyes
  St. Croix,
  U.S.Virgin Islands
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  Coral-List mailing list
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