Senior Scientist: Cancer increase expected on West Coast from Fukushima exposures; Radioactive particles can bio-accumulate and form hotspots while crossing Pacific — KCRW: Concern California wildlife to be impacted; Sea life can biomagnify nuclear waste, leading to higher levels of radiation (AUDIO)
ENENews.com
April 14th, 2014
NPR affiliate KQED, Mar. 10, 2014 (at 41:00 in):
Question: There’s really no evidence that any of this radiation is going to cause additional sickness, cancers, etc. […] Do we really expect any additional cancers in California?
Michael Krasny, host: It’s a question we don’t necessarily have an answer to.
Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists’ senior scientist: Well, we do have an answer. The connection between ionizing radiation exposure and increased cancer risk is very well established. We do know that because the accident deposited radioactivity into the environment that wasn’t there before, that it’s going to cause additional radiation doses to people, that will be associated with additional disease. Now the question is, whether that will be a strong enough signal that an epidemiological study will be able to detect and prove causation. That’s a different issue, sometimes people tend to confuse the two. They think if it can’t be detected it’s not there. But simply extrapolating from first principles — there’s radiation in the environment that wasn’t there before, people are exposed, that will cause additional disease. […] This is a problem, because of the heterogeneous nature of the way these isotopes travel and are bio-accumulated, there are potential hotspots.
Full broadcast available here
KCRW 89.9 FM Los Angeles, Mar. 10, 2014 (at 25:00 in):
Warren Olney, host: How concerned are they that there’s going to be health effects?
Benjamin Gottlieb, producer: There’s a consensus among scientists and health professionals that the radiation from Fukushima really won’t pose a health risk […] There is concern this might impact our wildlife. I asked Prof. Steven Manley what he thought […]
Manley: The anticipated amounts […] are not considered to be human health risks. But, I think it’s important to know actually what is in our environment, how much is there — first of all, to verify that there’s not harmful amounts there — but also so that we know that things that happen thousands of miles away can end up on our doorstep […] the fact that its entered into the ecosystem should be cause for concern. […]
Gottlieb: There’s a process called biological magnification and that’s a process in which dissolved substance in something like kelp is passed up the food chain. As you know, sea urchins eat the kelp — and our lovely sea otters, they eat the sea urchins. So there’s a concern that by this process, there could be a higher level of radiation in the sea life.
The Rest…HERE
