Friday, February 26, 2016

Radioactive Fish?

We’ve all heard at one point or another about the risk of radioactive fish coming from Fukushima. I’m here to tell you not to be concerned. Seriously. Don’t worry.

Immediately after Fukushima, there were high levels of radiation detected in the immediate area but thanks to ocean currents, most of that radiation has been dispersed. If that sounds scary, it really shouldn’t. Think about labels that warn you that you shouldn’t do something in a poorly ventilated area. Carbon monoxide can be a deadly issue in a closed garage but it isn’t really if the garage is left open and air can flow out. The carbon monoxide that you let out of your garage isn’t going to kill your neighbor because it’s been dispersed by air currents and spread so thinly it’s not much of a risk to anyone.

Radiation in the ocean is much like opening the car garage. The area right next to your exhaust is probably not the best place to be but it shouldn’t cause any problems if you’re outside the garage door. Additionally, the half life of some of the elements is quite short. Iodine-131 has a half life of just 8 days.

One of the big radiation concerns was and still is the seafood in the area. Some fish, referred to as pelagic species, roam the open ocean and can travel across oceans. Tuna made the news when samples of tuna caught off southern California were found to contain radioactivity traceable to Fukushima. Scientists were excited about this – not because of concern about the radioactivity – but because the radioactivity demonstrated that bluefin tuna do routinely travel all the way across the Pacific Ocean. The amounts the fish carried were minuscule — far less, ounce for ounce, than the amount of naturally occurring radiation occurring in a banana— but enough for scientists to gain insight into animal migration.

Additionally, a study done by Oregon State University revealed traces of cesium in albacore tuna. However, “a year of eating albacore with these cesium traces is about the same dose of radiation as you get from spending 23 seconds in a stuffy basement from radon gas, or sleeping next to your spouse for 40 nights from the natural potassium-40 in their body," said Delvan Neville, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University “It’s just not much at all.”

If you’re still concerned, know this: As of March 10, 2014, FDA has tested 1,345 import and domestic samples specifically to monitor for Fukushima contamination. Two hundred and twenty-five of these were seafood or seafood products.  Of the 1,345 samples, two were found to contain detectable levels of Cesium, but the levels were well below the established Derived Intervention Level (DIL) and posed no public health concern. 


4 comments:

  1. This was an interesting read. I agree, people should not be so concerned about the radiation in some fish. Especially after reading this post and finding out about the radiation dose. It is minuscule. I find it very interesting that scientist were able to find out more about the migration of bluefin tuna. Great post!

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  2. I do believe that it is actually very interestiing to be able to track the fish as they move from one area to another. It is almost like radioactively labeling a reactant to see its endpoint in a chemical reaction. I wonder if this has enabled better tuna life travel studies.Of course this was not on purpose but studying the opportunity this grants is neccessary.

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  3. This is so interesting. I really like the comparisons that were made about the radiation doses. I also think it's funny that we find it exciting that there was radiation found in the tuna because of the traveling. Someone who may still be scared of radiation would probably freak out reading about that but then see that scientists were excited about it!

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  4. I've read that the amount of radiation coming from the Fukushima accident is negligible if you are concerned in the west coast of the U.S. But, what about the wildlife exposed to the effects (immediate or not) of the Fukushima accident?

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