FDA: Eating Fish With Radiation 2400% Above Federal Limits “Poses No Health Risks”

The Intel Hub
By Alexander Higgins – Contributing Writer
April 6th, 2011

The EPA says eating fish caught in Japan, with radiation levels 2400% above Federal limits, does not pose any health risks. First Rainwater at 18,100% above drinking water limits is labeled as testing at levels far below concern. Now radiation in fish 2400% above federal food radiation limits also poses no health risks?

What I would really like know at this point is what levels qualify as “levels of concern”?

I recently posted the Federal Radiation limits for food in water in my article about Japan nuclear radiation being found in California drinking water.

First, I have seen comments that point people to federal food standards for radiation. For the record, I have correctly referenced the drinking water standard. Here they are:

Agency	Media	Standard
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	Drinking water*	4 mrem/yr equivalent to 3 pCi/L (0.1 Bq/L) continuous exposure
	Air**	2.1X10-13 Ci/m3
Food and Drug Administration	Food in commerce (derived intervention level)***	170 Becquerels per kilogram (4,600 pCi/kg)
NRC, DOE, OSHA, National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP), and International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)	Annual occupational exposure limits†	50 mSv (5 rem) for whole body dose 500 mSv (50 rem) for thyroid dose

Source: CDC: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/iodine/standards_regulations.html

To be clear, the radiation limit for radiation in food is 170 Becquerels per kilogram. Here is screen shot of the FDA limits for radiation published on the CDC website with the food radiation limits highlighted.

Japan Sets Radiation Standards For Fish

…

The small fish caught Friday — before the intentional dumping began — had 4,080 becquerels of iodine 131 per kilogram. The new standards allow up to 2,000 becquerels of iodine 131 per kilogram, the standard used for vegetables in Japan, but it was unclear how the government would enforce the new rules.

The fish also contained cesium 137, which decays much more slowly than iodine 131, at a level of 526 becquerels per kilogram.

“Clearly the fish are consuming highly radioactive food,” said Paul G. Falkowski, a professor of marine, earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University. But Professor Falkowski emphasized that even those levels were not likely to present health hazards in Japan or elsewhere, since fishing is restricted in Japan and these levels of radiation are not likely to travel far.

Still, experts on radiation in seafood said it was nearly impossible to get a full sense of the scope of the environmental and health risks until the Japanese released information on radiation levels in more species of fish and seaweed and in a greater number of locations. Measurements in the seawater are often not a good indication of how much radiation may be entering the food chain, scientists say.

Source: The NY Times

4,080 becquerels per kg is clearly 2400% higher than the federal food limits for radiation in food  of 170 becquerels per kg.

FDA Says Japanese Fish With Radiation 2400% Higher Than Federal Food Limits Pose No Health Risks

The Feds say that fish with radiation levels 2400% federal food limits is safe to eat.

U.S. Seeks to Reassure on Contaminated Food

…

U.S. public-health officials sought Tuesday to reassure consumers about the safety of food in the U.S., including seafood, amid news that fish contaminated with unusually high levels of radioactive materials had been caught in waters 50 miles from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.

No contaminated fish have turned up in the U.S., or in U.S. waters, according to experts from the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They expressed confidence that even a single fish sufficiently contaminated to pose a risk to human health would be detected by the U.S. monitoring system.

They also dismissed concerns that eating fish contaminated at the levels seen so far in Japan would pose such a risk.

Thomas Frieden, head of the CDC in Atlanta, said he expected continued detection of low levels of radioactive elements in the water, air and food in the U.S. in coming days, but that readings at those levels “do not indicate any level of public health concern.”

Source:Wall Street Journal

Back in the real world…

NHK: Japan Nuclear Reactor Radiation Levels NOW So High They Can’t Be Measured!

 

NHK reports that radiation levels at the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan are now so high that they can’t be measured.

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