Fukushima radiation dangers; 10 foods can help protect your family naturally

From Amy Nicole, on Ultraculture:

Fukushima fish – how bad are they? Photo via Nation of Change. Click to go to source.

“Japanese officials have just admitted the grim truth that since the 2011 Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and meltdown, 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have leaked into the Pacific Ocean, plus a huge amount of cesium, as well as strontium—which replaces calcium in bones and stays in the bodies of humans and sea life. Over 300 tons of radioactive water are still leaking into the sea each day. And if that wasn’t enough, reactor 4 is severely damaged and sinking—the removal of the spent fuel rods will be one of the most urgent and dangerous tasks ever undertaken in the history of nuclear energy. A rodent chewed through the wiring recently, causing a power outage which came close to triggering an unstoppable nuclear chain reaction.

Those living downwind, especially on the west coast of North America, may have significant reason to be aware and take precautions.

Not only did the Vancouver Sun report that the seaweed in British Columbia has radiation levels four times the amount considered safe, but cow’s milk samples taken from across the US after the Fukushima incident have shown radiation levels three times higher than EPA maximums.

But don’t buy your ticket to Sydney just yet—there’s hope. Avoiding certain foods and eating more of others may help you protect yourself and your family from possible damage from radiation. Here’s a partial list of tips to help you navigate these waters:

Products to Avoid:

1. Many experts are urging people to stop eating sea life from the Pacific. This would obviously include anything from Japan. Marine chemist Ken Buesseler found Pacific cesium levels 50 million times higher than pre disaster levels. (The levels tapered off but plateaued at 10,000 times higher than normal.) The algae get contaminated and it goes to the little fish, to the big fish and then to you.

2. Dairy and meat. The higher on the food chain, the higher the concentration of radioactive materials may be. Dairy products in particular may be the most contaminated item, because the living creature has eaten the contaminated grass, other foods and water (from contaminated rain that forms from the Pacific and atmospheric particles); the radiation from which is stored it in its body and passed on to whoever eats it. After the Chernobyl disaster there were numerous cases of children becoming severely ill from drinking cow’s milk.

Products to Choose:

1. Citrus pectin or apple pectin. In supplement form, these have been shown to bind to and remove radioactive materials such as Cesium-137 from the body.

2. Spirulina and chlorella have both been shown to reduce significantly or even remove radioactive materials in people who were contaminated by the Chernobyl fallout. However, this blue-green algae superfood should probably not be sourced from Japan or nearby waters.

3. Seaweeds (and green and black teas for that matter) have been shown to neutralize radioactive isotopes in the body, and contain a high amount of protective natural iodine that would definitely protect the thyroid. Many people are claiming that dulse from Ireland is the safest. The jury is still out on California coastal seaweed, with some people even buying Geiger counters to test everything they consume. Geiger counters are rather blunt tools though, and do not tell you the type of isotope involved. I personally would not eat seaweed from the west coast of North America or Japan, but that’s an individual decision.

Read more on Ultraculture.

From Christina Sarich, on Nation of Change:

Just how bad is Fukushima Fish?

“More than 43 species of fish in the immediate area around the disaster have already been tested and are too toxic to consume.

While Greenpeace may toot their own horn as environmental watch-dogs on occasion, and no less frequently exaggerate the deranged practices of oil companies, corporate polluters, and nuclear energy sites, understandably, for effect, it seems Fukushima is really as bad as they say it is. According to a recent article by the environmental group, “Japan anxiously hid the leaks’ that are now dumping nuclear-contaminated water back into the Pacific Ocean, and they are calling for more transparency so that the site can be shored up and the ongoing radiation leaks controlled.

National Geographic is calling the ongoing disaster at Fukushima a level 3 disaster rating out of 7.  It was elevated significantly just over a week ago since it’s original rating of 1 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). According to the INES, ‘events’ are rated according to several criteria, but namely how the incident affects people, the environment, radiological barriers, and control. The scale is designed, ‘so that the severity of the event is about ten times greater for each increase in level on the scale.”

An veteran nuclear engineer, David Lochbaum, who works for the Union of Concerned Scientists said simply, “In some respects, it’s not that big of an issue. . .but its still the same mess.”

What this means for Japan, is obviously devastating. Health concerns ranging from cancer to radiation sickness are now a risk for all people who live in our near Japan, but the full depth of radiation damage caused by both the accident and the leak at Fukushima are still being assessed and scientists are now compiling some startling statistics from Japanese fisheries about the levels of irradiation in a world food supply – and they are persistently high.

Radiation levels are in fact, 18 times higher than previously thought. These new levels of radiation have been found near a water storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said radiation near the bottom of the tank measured 1,800 millisieverts an hour – high enough to kill an exposed person in four hours. Furthermore, 300 tonnes of radioactive water have been leaked into the ocean just since the original leak was discovered. These new levels of radioactive waste are what caused the Fukushima incident to be raised from a 1 to a 3 on the INES scale…..”

Read more on Nation of Change.