RUN!:
The U.S. government said Wednesday that traces of radiation have been found in milk in Washington state […].
The Environmental Protection Agency said a March 25 sample of milk produced in the Spokane, Wash., area contained a 0.8 pico curies per literlevel of iodine-131 […].
The EPA said it increased monitoring after radiation leaked from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It expects more such findings in coming days […].
Iodine-131 has a half-life of about eight days […].
[my emphases]
It always begins this way: radioactive milk in Washington State, Oregon coast oysters coughing up hot pearls, California zombie fish tacos turning on legwarmer-adorned Venice Beach rollerbladers and eating their lips off. And it always ends with Dustin Hoffman racing against the clock, trying to track down some deadly escaped monkey.
Thankfully, I have a cupboard filled with Beefaroni, and I’ve stockpiled enough iodinized salt to keep me cured for at least a year. Provided I can get used to a heavily crusted crotch and having to sleep upside down, hanging from a hook in the meat cellar, that is.
Of course, should the house be attacked by an enormous moth, all bets are off.
(h/t TerryH)
Zombie cheerleaders are right around the corner.
Ironic that this article doesn’t reference the accepted minimum detectable concentration (MDC) for Iodine-131. Pretty damn close to 0.8 piC per liter.
Bottom line ? This level – if accurate – is indistinguishable from ZERO.
I’m going to buy some milk today.
I expect by the weekend to be able to light birthday cake candles by blowing on them.
How many U.S. milk drinkers does it take to change a light bulb?
did they check for ddt? i’m sure its there at the parts per billion level.
Actually, the article does reference it, deadrody.
I intentionally removed all the real information to take a bit of a shot at some of the more panicked early coverage.
From WSJ comments :
Why do we import milk from Japan? Do we not have enough dairy farms in the US?
Bah aa haaa . Well played.
LACTOSE TOLERANT HARDEST HIT.
Wake me when the cows start glowing.
Of course, this is meaningfull only if there was a reference baseline to measure the new amounts against. So when is the last time they checked for iodine-131 in milk off the shelf in Washington state? How do they know the radiation levels haven’t actually declined?
ot
birther news
Donald Trump: Obama Possibly A Muslim
You’re being unhelpful, Charles Austin. It’s RAYDIYASHUN!!!!!!111!! omigodomigodomigodwereallgonnaDIEEEE!!!!
I welcome the radiation enhanced overlords.
Are they testing the cows’ farts for radiation? The farts are already killing the planet, but if they were little bovine mushroom clouds, that might finally get people to realize that cows need to be eradicated. Totally.
speaking of radiation overlords
link
Rumor has it a certain C+D letter is so hot with radioactivity it sparkles and is now buried deep in Yucca Mountain.
Just if you were wondering.
Not sure what the half life is on Patterico’s accusations.
…to take a bit of a shot at some of the more panicked early coverage.
Are you allowed to do that? I heard from a reliable source that you’d gotten a C&D
orderletterstickynotechalk scrawl on the sidewalk telling you that such behavior was verboten.The eradication of cows is some weird kind of hell. Life without rare steak, carpaccio, brisket, etal is a life not worth living.
Speaking of radioactive, I see that The Donald has doubled down, talking about the possibility that The One has “Muslim” listed on his long form birth certificate and saying that Ayers may have writtern “Dreams”.
My personal opinion on withholding the long form birth certificate – Barry Ilyich Soetoro
So far the official Death Milk body count is a whopping zero, but we expect that to multiply by a factor of eight million at any second.
Zero multiplied by a factor of eight million is still zero, no ? ;-)
So to speak.
Ga-me-ra! Ga-me-ra!
Gamera is really neat!
Gamera is filled with meat!
We believe in Ga-me-ra!
Probably Jeff is going to be seriously (and I do mean seriously) ridiculed by SEK and his cheering section for not tearing Trump a new rhetorical asshole over that. Maybe half a dozen people will read it, and care.
Guess I need to get to work on my fallout shelter.
Maybe half a dozen people will read it, and care.
Caring is what they do.
That better be on You Tube.
Slart, I don’t know HOW i’m going to hold my head up when Trump stars showing his ass as a bad presidential candidate.
The egg on my face. After all that support we’ve given him through the years.
Walker should still ignore this judge. Otherwise he is saying that the judiciary can determine the rules of the legislature — and that the rule keeper of the legislature doesn’t know how to enforce the rules.
JD, there you go pouring your cold, unhelpful rationality over my sweet hot sensationalism.
Why is anyone even watching the quadrennial Trump Presidential Publicity Tour?
Look, I’m doing my best to ignore it Pablo. I can’t help it when people bring this stuff to the blogs.
Tap water can have up to 300 pCi according to the EPA and not be a violation (total radiation, not just iodine) and for iodine-131 specifically, a common dosage for hyperthyroid treatment is 10,000,000,000 pCi. Lower doses can be worse than higher ones, if the worry is thyroid cancer, because they leave more damaged cells alive. But in both cases we’re talking doses that are high enough to harm thyroid tissue. If even 10,000 pCi killed some cells then the dose to kill most/all would not be a million times higher.
Even if it did come from the nuclear reactors in Japan, 0.8 pCi is irrelevant to everyone outside of academic research.
Dude! 0.8 pico curies is 0.0000000000008 curies…
That’s an awfully small number. And as RyanC noted, the EPA allows more than 300 times that amount in ordinary tap water.
Anyway, radiation exposure is a cumulative phenomena. Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, this phenomena needs to be observed for a while; at least for a few half-life periods.
Of course, I’m an AGW denying, science hating, hive-minded, Goldstein zombie rapid response squad member suffering from serious epistemic closure…
Now was all this in a real newspaper or was it just something you read on the internet?
Bob —
Click through to the story and see all that I removed. So that I could make a zombie fish taco/Dustin Hoffman joke.
I’m absolutely invidious.
I get that Jeff, I was reacting more to some of the west coast hysteria I’ve heard of reports of on the radio over the last few weeks.
One of those Windmills on I65 jumped in front of a truck headed southbound last night. Goddam things are killers.
How may of those wind thingys do we have to chop down and burn to get the same amount of electricity as we get from the giant japanese lizard hatcheries anyway? Doesn’t seem right planting them everywhere just to chop ’em down.
History shows,
again and again,
how nature points out
the folly of men.
Go Go Godzilla!
LMC – I love driving through that windmill farm at night.
Yeah, nothing personal, Carin. His mug is frigging everywhere and I’m reminded of the blonde joke where there’s footage of a jumper on the 11:00 news, and knowing that the guy does jump because she’d seen him do it on the 6:00 news, she’s deeply curious as to whether he’ll actually. do. it. again.
Trump being Trump is not news is all I’m saying.