EPA is monitoring air and drinking water and milk in US for traces of radioactive material
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
The EPA provided this update to my office today:
" As a result of the incident with the Fukushima nuclear plant
in Japan, several EPA air monitors have detected very low levels of
radioactive material in the United States consistent with estimated
releases from the damaged nuclear reactors. EPA has stepped up
monitoring of precipitation, milk, and drinking water in response
to the Fukushima events. The detections in air, precipitation, and
milk were expected, and the levels detected have been far below
levels of public-health concern.
Today, EPA released its latest RadNet results, which include the
first results for drinking water. Drinking water samples from two
locations, Boise, Idaho and Richland, Washington, showed trace
amounts of Iodine-131 - about 0.2 picocuries per liter in each
case. An infant would have to drink almost 7,000 liters of this
water to receive a radiation dose equivalent to a day's worth of
the natural background radiation exposure we experience
continuously from natural sources of radioactivity in our
environment.
Earlier precipitation samples collected by EPA have shown trace
amounts of radioactivity, so EPA has expected to find results such
as these in some drinking water samples. Similar findings are to be
expected in the coming weeks."
To see results from these samples, please visit
this site:
http://epa.gov/japan2011/
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