Got Milk?

This week in Spokane, Washington and San Luis Obispo County, California there were  traces of radioactive iodine 131 found in milk. It sounds dangerous but according to the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency the amount of iodine 131 found in the samples are 5,000 times below the level of action or concern. Earlier this month Japan experienced an earthquake that caused a horrific tsunami that not only caused destruction of towns and lives but has caused a Japan power plant to leak radiation. It seems that very diluted levels of Iodine 131 entered the air and landed on the grass, hay, feed that the cows in the west are consuming. The primary risk of high exposure to iodine 131 is radiogenic thyroid cancer later on in life. 

This man has a case of Iodine 131 Cancer.

People should have no worries about the current level of iodine 131 in milk. Iodine 131 has a half-life of eight day, pretty much every 8 days it loses  half it's strength, it was been through at least 2 half lives since the Fukushima reactors in Japan shut down.  Washington Governor Christine Gregoire said "both the EPA and the FDA confirmed that these levels are minuscule and are far below levels of public health concern, including for infants and children," All in all The FDA and EPA are confident that the levels of iodine 131 found in milk levels are consumable without any harm. They will continue to monitor  radiation in milk, precipitation, drinking water, and other outlets. These are the times when it is great to live in a country with regulation in food and with an agency designed to protect us and our environment.   There is now a ban by he FDA on food, vegetable, and dairy imports from area near Fukushima nuclear plant.The FDA and our government is doing a good job keeping the American people informed and secure about what is and isn't safe for us to consume.