Before treatment it would take 1 trillion years for Fukushima to double the Pacific's radiation level from "how the fuck can we measure this tiny amount" to "this is still less than a banana, level of radiation "
People vastly underestimate just how much water there is in the ocean.
Radiation is naturally occurring. Bananas are radioactive, as you've pointed out. Most things radioactive are heavy. Which means they fall out of suspension fairly rapidly. From here some measure of bottom and filter feeders may ingest it. But as a rule, we don't eat those parts. Also, if it builds up to toxic or dangerous radioactive levels, the animal dies. It's at this point, it could enter the food chain of parts we eat.
That said, the levels are extremely low and it can be diluted rapidly. So long as it's "flushed" far enough at sea.
Exactly my point.
Part of the cold war tactics was to cause fear of radiation.
Which is as dumb as fearing water. We need both to live.
Just be wary of quantity
do not eat Pacific caught seafood, period.
Why on earth not?
You need radiation to live
Cosmic Radiation and Nuclear Radiation are two seperate things. Nuclear which is what Fukushima Nuclear Water contains makes your hair and teeth fall out. Then you die from radiation poisoning. The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:
Q Is there any evidence or research about what would happen if all radiation was gone? I know radiation is put off by many natural resources, but has any research been done to see if we could live without any at all? Also, what side effects would come from such a lack of radiation? If there is no research that you know of, and you would not mind, I am curious to know your own opinion on the matter. In short, could we live if 100% of radiation was gone, or what would the side effects be from such a lack?
A The short answer to your question is that no research has been done on the effects of a total absence of radiation. The reason is because it is impossible to do this research. There isn't a spot anywhere on Earth (or nearby) without background radiation. It comes from natural uranium and thorium (and their decay products) in the Earth's crust, from a naturally radioactive form of potassium (which we all need to survive), from cosmic radiation, and many other sources. Humans and all life on the planet have evolved in a naturally radioactive environment. The level of radiation in our environment has been very slowly decreasing as the Earth ages and the natural radioactive elements in the Earth's crust slowly decay away. So the radiation we are exposed to today is somewhat less than it was when our very distant ancestors left the oceans and crawled out on dry land.
While it is impossible to totally remove background radiation, it is possible to look at the effects of a much lower background than we all normally experience. This has been done in laboratories far underground to shield the experiments from cosmic radiation. These kinds of experiments have been done with bacteria and other organisms, and they almost always show that organisms don't fare very well in a greatly reduced radiation background. This is what I would expect, since we have evolved in higher radiation backgrounds, and we are presumably adapted to that environment.
Brant Ulsh, PhD, CHP
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