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The question has come up in some subforums on C-D as to whether the radioactivity still being dumped in the ocean from Japan's Fukushima plant poses a health risk to circum-Pacific populations. The argument has been made that nuclear waste dumping in the Pacific and other oceans has been occurring for many decades, so why worry? Here's an article by a scientist with Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies that answers that question.
Although the ocean’s capacity to dilute radiation is huge, signs are that nuclear isotopes are already moving up the local food chain.
The article calls for more studies on how marine life around the Pacific is being affected, noting that elements like radioactive iodine in the water--and subsequently, in the fish we eat--is known to cause damage to the thyroid gland, among other risks.
Does not appear to have altered Japanese fishing industry much????
I did a quick search of this topic just now, and found a UN article from 2015 reporting that the fishing industry based in Fukushima has been devastated. Earlier, I saw mention of the fact that Taiwan fish vendors have signs saying their fish didn't come from Japan. (Seems a bit ludicrous, given Taiwan's proximity to Japan, not to mention Taiwan's own nuclear waste dumping off its own coast).
Japan's fishing industry isn't limited to Japanese waters, of course. They fish all over the Pacific in international waters. But they seem to be having trouble marketing their fish outside of Japan. I wonder how their own citizens feel about the fish they consume. It's always been a staple of the Japanese diet. https://www.unisdr.org/archive/43503
I did a quick search of this topic just now, and found a UN article from 2015 reporting that the fishing industry based in Fukushima has been devastated. Earlier, I saw mention of the fact that Taiwan fish vendors have signs saying their fish didn't come from Japan. (Seems a bit ludicrous, given Taiwan's proximity to Japan, not to mention Taiwan's own nuclear waste dumping off its own coast).
Japan's fishing industry isn't limited to Japanese waters, of course. They fish all over the Pacific in international waters. But they seem to be having trouble marketing their fish outside of Japan. I wonder how their own citizens feel about the fish they consume. It's always been a staple of the Japanese diet. https://www.unisdr.org/archive/43503
Sixty-six percent of the fish consumed in Japan is domestically caught. Even so Japan relies on imports for about half of its annual consumption of seafood, about 7.2 million tons in 2008.
Japan and China are the largest fishing nations. By some measures China has surpassed Japan in recent years but most of the fish that the Chinese consume are freshwater fish raised in fish farms. The Japanese eat mostly sea fish.
By other measures Japan is still the largest fishing nation. According to a National Geographic survey the largest harvesters of fish (metric tons) were: 1) Japan (7.5 million); 2) China (7 million); 3) Peru (6.7 million); 4) Chile (6.5 million); 5) Russia (5.2 million); 6) the U.S. (5 million).
Still the Japanese fishing industry is on the decline. Japan caught 12.8 million tons of fish in 1984 but only 6.35 million tons in 2000 and 5.52 million tons in 2002. In 2000, it imported 3.54 million tons of fish, double what it imported in 1984.
Fish consumption dropped around 15 percent in the 1990s, largely because of the time and difficulty in preparing it. The number of fishmongers in Tokyo declined 53 percent to 1,130 between 1980 and 2000.
Fish were traditionally used to fertilize rice fields and today symbolize the hope of an abundant harvest.
The question has come up in some subforums on C-D as to whether the radioactivity still being dumped in the ocean from Japan's Fukushima plant poses a health risk to circum-Pacific populations. The argument has been made that nuclear waste dumping in the Pacific and other oceans has been occurring for many decades, so why worry? Here's an article by a scientist with Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies that answers that question.
Although the ocean’s capacity to dilute radiation is huge, signs are that nuclear isotopes are already moving up the local food chain.
The article calls for more studies on how marine life around the Pacific is being affected, noting that elements like radioactive iodine in the water--and subsequently, in the fish we eat--is known to cause damage to the thyroid gland, among other risks.
There are positrons in every banana you eat, that is antimatter, if you are scared of isotopes, watch out for the potassium isotopes in a banana. After eating a banana, you ingest the potassium 40, which is radioactive, making you (and every other living thing on earth) a source of radiation and antimatter.
On average your typical banana (which remember are all clones of each other) emit a positron every 75 minutes but lots of other radiation more frequently. Thus as you sit at your breakfast table with a banana, or dinner table with yams, remember about 1 percent of potassium is potassium 40, and it is radioactive. Anything with measurable potassium in it is radioactive. Are you concerned about eating clones attacking you with antimatter?
It is possible to put a banana in a chamber of vapor, and see an antimatter explosion with your unaided eye every 75 minutes, if you have 10 bananas it takes only 7.5 minutes. You can see the explosion of something billions of times smaller than your eye can see, this is how energetic it is. When you pass bananas in your supermarket, you are near a large source of antimatter. Is Yale warning us about this too? Does Yale mention we need some of these radioactive things to live?
People are so scared of words like isotope, or radiation (note watching this on your monitor, you are watching radiation, light is a form of radiation). We can easily be frightened by scientific terms as a culture, because we are so darn scientifically illiterate.
The solution to pollution is dilution. Everything breaks down over time, even plastic.
^^^ I'll eat the bananas. Watch my computer etc. Their radiation levels are no where near what Fukishima is dumping into our worlds water.
Talk about dilution? Every single day the dilution get less by the massive amount dumped into the ocean.
You can eat all the pacific fish etc poisoned by Fukishima.
Somewhere I read it'll be years before its cleaned up. How many years ago did this happen. They should be ashamed of themselves, they created this mess by putting it on the ocean. And they should do what it takes to clean it up NOW. Even if it means people die doing it.
THEY made this mess, clean it up so the rest of the world can eat. Because with ocean currents, it'll probably end up effecting the Atlantic.
There are positrons in every banana you eat, that is antimatter, if you are scared of isotopes, watch out for the potassium isotopes in a banana. After eating a banana, you ingest the potassium 40, which is radioactive, making you (and every other living thing on earth) a source of radiation and antimatter.
On average your typical banana (which remember are all clones of each other) emit a positron every 75 minutes but lots of other radiation more frequently. Thus as you sit at your breakfast table with a banana, or dinner table with yams, remember about 1 percent of potassium is potassium 40, and it is radioactive. Anything with measurable potassium in it is radioactive. Are you concerned about eating clones attacking you with antimatter?
An example of a banana like potassium powered positron generator on steroids is here -
It is possible to put a banana in a chamber of vapor, and see an antimatter explosion with your unaided eye every 75 minutes, if you have 10 bananas it takes only 7.5 minutes. You can see the explosion of something billions of times smaller than your eye can see, this is how energetic it is. When you pass bananas in your supermarket, you are near a large source of antimatter. Is Yale warning us about this too? Does Yale mention we need some of these radioactive things to live?
People are so scared of words like isotope, or radiation (note watching this on your monitor, you are watching radiation, light is a form of radiation). We can easily be frightened by scientific terms as a culture, because we are so darn scientifically illiterate.
The solution to pollution is dilution. Everything breaks down over time, even plastic.
Scientists are well aware of this. We're exposed to radiation from all manner of sources daily. The issue is the dramatic increase in that exposure from nuclear waste. For that matter, in NM, uranium is in the soil, and therefore in all the food grown locally. In fact, even when living in Seattle, testing showed I had uranium in my system.
But there's a reason the FDA has tested fish oil capsules from various sources in recent years, and continues to monitor radiation levels in salmon and salmon oil. They're not just saying, "Oh well; we're not going to worry about a few more isotopes". I guess you didn't read the article, or you'd know what Yale has mentioned.
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