Alan in Sebastopol CA, who has been doing Geiger counts since the disaster in Japan began, has been posting his daily results at: Similar grassroots efforts are HERE and HERE. Here’s also the EPA’s map. For more information about the specific radioisotopes that have reached the Bay Area, check out the rainwater monitoring of the UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Air Monitoring Station, which reports elevated levels. They insist it is not a significant risk to public health. [NOTE: Any levels no matter how slight above routine background radiation (with which people have evolved over tens of millions of years) are dangerous! – Mitchel] Up to date log pasted below. See daily log, and testing details, here: Another couple of resources I find tremendously useful, more so than radiation maps, is the UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Air Monitoring Station, which is testing the air and rain water, as well as tap water, creek water, and milk now. They downplay the results, but they do report their results in detail so we can make up our own minds. There is also a forum that links from there, where people are discussing the issues. In the FAQ they say they basically can’t detect plutonium or uranium, unless they are present in very large amounts. They are finding radioactive iodine (I131, I132), cesium (Cs137, Cs134), and tellurium (Te132), particularly in rain water: Air, Rainwater, Milk detection And the most practical information I’ve found about what to do, now that we’re in the midst of this, has been this article about nutritional support, which explains plainly what to eat to ward off damage from radiation as best as possible: Eat your miso with burdock root, folks! (Thank you Isis Feral in Oakland California for compiling the above.) Listen also to a terrific series of shows on this subject by Gary Null on WBAI radio, particularly this one: Countering the claims that these elevated levels don’t matter in the long run, the KPFA Morning Mix interviewed Dr. Steve Wing on Monday March 21 about the different kinds of radiation, how they enter the body, and what damage low level radiation might do: KPFA Show challenging “Safe Radiation” The Ecological Options Network has been covering the Fukushima Fallout, and the following page has a summary of resources about various aspects of this disaster, including some relevant history about bird die offs on the U.S. West Coast after Chernobyl: |