Japan Disaster: The Growing Threats of Airborne Radiation

Radioactive Iodine and Cesium continue to spread, despite efforts to control radioactive water pools at the severely damaged, Japanese plant. Airborne radiation has already spread to California, Seattle, and even Chicago, and it's only a matter of time before these harmful particles reach levels that are too high to ignore. Chernobyl should serve as a cautionary tale; fearing widespread panic, the Soviet authorities, under President Gorbachev, ordered citizens to continue life as normal. Despite mounting evidence of radiation spreading to the West Coast, federal and safety agencies in the United States continue to assure American citizens that the Japan disaster poses no immediate threat, as several media sources like the BBC, have even gone as far to call Japanese nuclear safety reports a "mistake" claiming that their results were exaggerated. 

In Japan, people do not know if their food or water is safe; a similar situation will soon be facing the United States, if agencies like the EPA and the RadNet testing project continue to assure that airborne radiation, poses no risk to public health or safety. For now, Americans are being told to continue life as normal.

Japan Disaster: The Rising Threat of Radiation in Drinking Water and Milk

The EPA continues to assure people that the Japan disaster poses no threat, but the reality is that radioactive contaminants like Iodine-131 are being detected in drinking water and milk across the United States, including New York. However, despite the growing evidence, agencies like the EPA and the RadNet monitoring/testing program have been awfully "optimistic" about the current risk and looming threat. 


Widespread Panic? Public Pandemonium? Why have nuclear safety officials and agencies continue to deny the risk to public health and safety? Why aren't the results being reported? Is the United States fearing public mass hysteria?

‎"The detections in air, precipitation, and milk were expected, and the levels detected have been far below levels of public-health concern." 

Like with Chernobyl-- information and radiation data is being kept under wraps; radiation figures are being tightly controlled and reported by various regional, federal and global agencies, but the question remains: how much is information is really being reported? I, for one, am being skeptical ever since the BBC called nuclear safety reports a 'mistake'.