Guest Writer for Wake Up World
Where we stand now in 2015, everyone is drinking or absorbing poisoned water. Not just the usual poisons so many health advocates have spoken of – such as fluoride, chlorine and certain heavy metals that contaminate our drinking water – no, I’m referring here to a poison far more insidious and far reaching in its implications, and unless the water you drink is home filtered by reverse osmosis, or distilled by steam, your water is likely poisoned (along with your food supply) with radioactive waste sources outside of what is considered “naturally occurring” radiation, such as radon (a TENORM).
What is alarming, is the accumulative amount of man-made radioactive waste such as tritium (a by-product of nuclear reactors, identified in municipal water reports as ‘tritiated water’ or HTO) (Biello, 2014, Scientific America). Tritium is linked to cancer, it’s radioactivity is partly water based and can in theory go anywhere in the body. What is even more alarming is that radioactive tritium is only a part of the radioactive poisons in the drinking water, but it is showing up in higher quantities, along with other radioactive isotopes.
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Tritium levels are 160 times higher than the levels considered ‘safe’ by the EPA set back in 1977, and has been accumulating in municipal water sources, wells, lakes, bays, oceans, and other water-ways, especially those located near nuclear reactor sites – those that are damaged, or had black outs and leaked radioactive contaminants into the air, water, and land, making its way into various waterways. This poisonous water is consumed by all of us — think about baby formula, soft drinks, fruit juices, coffee, tea, etc, — everything that uptakes water, including plant life, birds, fish, insects — all are negatively affected.
Why Do I Feel It Urgent We Begin to Discuss Our Poisoned Water?
The land and water are not in harmony anymore! In fact the earth is terribly sick from poisons, including man-made radioactive waste, as well as other man-made toxic waste. Our water in particular, has become increasingly more contaminated throughout history, and this contamination has become increasingly more worrisome since 1942; when Europe and the U.S. military began disposing their nuclear waste from weapons into oceans, and the fall-out from atomic bomb testing. (Alvarez, 2012)
Numerous resources collated in Wikipedia.com report that the following countries dumping radioactive waste into the oceans: the USSR, the UK, Switzerland, the US, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Russia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and South Korea. All together, they dumped as much as 85,100 TBq (85.1x1015Bq) of radioactive waste in more than 100 ocean sites (measured at the time of its initial dumping of radioactivity).
Discussions to cease radioactive waste dumping in the water began in 1972. International treaties were established, and by 1993, a treaty was signed banning ocean disposal of low-level radioactive wastes and promises to end dumping and incineration of industrial wastes (1972; London Convention, Basel Convention, MARPOL 73/78).
However, reports are surfacing today disclosing that nuclear waste is still being disposed of into oceans, especially off the coast of Somalia due to its defunct government or those illegally dumping.
Up until this past century, the oceans were able to handle the radioactive waste by dilution without showing too much stress. Radioactive dilution in some ocean currents though, is carrying the radioactive particles from coast to coast as sited from the nuclear spills coming from Japan, and traveling the currents that reach Alaska and California.
Was Fukushima Worse Than We Were Told?
Mixed reports want the public to believe that there is very little risk from radioactive fallout or spills, but as I continued to research, I saw photos of devastated sea life – especially walruses and seals – who fed on herring and other food chain fish, or plankton that travel through radioactive waste.
I also came across a report on one Alaskan fishery noting that one of its fish samples contained radioactive signatures from Japan’s damaged reactors. The FDA does not require nor does it pay Alaskan fisheries to test their fish — however, due to public clamor for guarantees over the safety of consuming salmon, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acquired samples for testing, and posted their results (2014). However, the data was compiled and its conclusions were reported on in a strange spreadsheet program that was difficult to open, let alone discern meaning meaning from, since there was no legend attached. I looked for information on the Alaskan fishery that reported radioactivity, but the FDA did not include this company’s name or details in its findings, and in conclusion to what I could gather from their numbers, there was no radiation found in their samples — not even trace amounts. This leads me to believe the trace numbers were changed in order for their samples to appear untainted.
Are Consumers Being Duped?
It would appear so, as Japanese researchers (2014) who are conducting independent testing of their fish contradict the FDA’s U.S. findings. Their results showed 65 per cent of the catches tested positive for cesium. In order to diminish public panic of those who would unknowingly purchase radioactive fish, the food safety agencies in Japan, the United States, and Canada simply doubled the “acceptable level of radiation” duping the public by making it appear as though the poisonous water, vegetation, and sea life are safe to consume (Watson, 2013).
Other contradictory reports indicating cause for alarm are surfacing, indicating unusual phenomena that is being attributed to radioactivity; such as red tides, large numbers of beached whales, diseased sea creatures such as sea lions and walruses showing bloody lesions, mullet, tuna, star fish disintegration, and salmon, crustaceans and other sea live containing concentrations of tritium, strontium 90, cesium 30, iodine 131. It is the same for sea plants such as seaweed and algae.
Radioactive waste in our global waters, is problematic to the health and wellbeing of everyone and everything.
In the U.S. alone, there are 31 aging nuclear reactors similar in design to Japan’s nuclear reactors that were severely damaged when a sizeable earthquake created the 150 foot wall of water that traveled inland about 6 miles, causing their nuclear reactors in Fukushima to go off line or black out, then melt-down. These damaged reactors not only leak radioactive water containing radioactive iodine 131, uranium, plutonium, strontium 90, cesium 137, and tritium into the ocean to this day, but they also released up to a 210 quadrillion becquerel fission cloud filled with cesium 137 into the atmosphere, according to Christoudias, T. and Lelieveld, J., (2013; “Modeling the global atmospheric transport and deposition of radionuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident,” (Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 1425-1438, doi:10.5194/acp-13-1425-2013).
Media Complicity in a Cover-up?
The media is quick to cover severe nuclear reactor atrocities like those of Japan, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island, but what of the lesser know ‘mishaps’ in the U.S. such as Browns Ferry (AL) or Crystal Lake (FL), that experienced black outs or damage, and leaked radioactive water into the surrounding area, along with radioactive plumes into the air?
Wikipedia reports that there have been over 56 U.S. nuclear reactor accidents alone. The resulting damage to human health alone is not widely discussed, nor is accumulation of radioactive waste in the drinking water highly publicized. In fact many reports down play the extreme hazard of repeated consumption of uranium-235, strontium 90, plutonium, uranium, tritium, and thorium-232 as merely nothing to worry about! But cancer rates, especially thyroid cancer, bone, lung, and pancreatic cancers, are rising exponentially for populations close to nuclear reactors – those exposed repeatedly to radioactive pollution.
What About Fracking Waste, and On-going Contamination from Previous Nuclear Incidents?
Fracking companies too are disposing of radioactive waste in the holes they are drilling in search of natural gas, consequently ground water is being further poisoned around these fracking sites.
Dr.’s John W. Gofman, (“Poisoned Power” 1971) and Ian Fairlie (“The Guardian”, Jan. 20, 2010), stated in their research that, “There is no safe dose of radiation.” In a meta analysis examination of ionizing radiation on mutation from the Chernobyl accident, researchers, Anders Pape Møllera and Timothy A. Mousseau found a significant correlation of the ionizing radiation and causation of mutation (Sci Rep. 2015; 5: 8363. Published online 2015 Feb 10. doi: 10.1038/srep08363.
Reports on testing wild boar some 25 years after Chernobyl, still show significant levels of radiation and therefore, these animals are deemed uneatable.
Things are Going from Bad to Worse
Radiation in our drinking water is now accumulating at an alarming rate. People and wildlife are at risk of developing cancer and serious disease as a result of this contamination, especially those who live within 100 miles of an aging nuclear facility, or near a nuclear facility experiencing a black out or off line scenario. Those who live near a fracking sites are also at risk.
We need to think about the impact of radioactivity upon human life – my life, your life, your parent’s life, your families’ life. Would you knowingly feed your baby poisoned water – the water you add to powdered formulas? What about vegetation absorbing poisoned water? Food crops, orchards? We need to think about the animals, birds, and insects, that eat poisoned vegetation and drink poisoned water. Do we have the right to destroy nature in this way? What about the sea life, especially the sea creatures we eat such as oysters, shrimp, sardines, lobster, crab, tuna, salmon, etc. They are now all contaminated with poisonous radioactive water. Are you prepared to just go along with this situation, or will you answer the urgent call to take action?
Given that we have been told we have now entered the 6th extinction level event on this planet, perhaps like me, you may feel the time is NOW to start making a lot of noise about this! Perhaps its time to start writing to your local representatives and voicing your concerns, or start online petitions to gather signature we can deliver to those who say they represent us?
I say the time is nigh!
Article sources:
- www.foe.org/system/storage/877/7a/f/2595/Alvarez_military_nuclear_Wastes_12-01-2012_rev._1.pdf
- UNSCEAR “Exposures of the public and workers from various sources of radiation”
- UNSCEAR “Health effects due to radiation from the Chernobyl accident”
- Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry “Estimate of aerial release of radioactive nucleotides” retrieved 2012-02-20 – Idaho State University “Radiation Information Network’s Radioactivity in Nature”
- Christoudias, T. and Lelieveld, J., (2013; “Modeling the global atmospheric transport and deposition of radionuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident,” (Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 1425-1438, doi:10.5194/acp-13-1425-2013)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_disposal_of_radioactive_waste
- “Radioactive Emissions and Health Hazards Surrounding Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama” (PDF) brings up a litany of concerns.
- http://ieer.org/resource/factsheets/uranium-its-uses-and-hazards/
- IAEA-TECDOC-1105. page 3-4 – 1946
- First dumping operation at Northeast Pacific Ocean Data are from IAEA-TECDOC-1105. Summary of pages 27–120
- http://www.livescience.com/39067-fukushima-radiation-5-things-to-know.html
- http://naturalsociety.com/obama-increases-allowable-levels-radiation-drinking-water-dramatically/
- Dec 18, 2014 – The Nuclear Industry calls this their “new normal,” according to Public … 12 about dumping radioactive waste into the ocean. … Reminder: Fukushima Radiation Levels 95% Higher than Reported, … Duh, let then eat yellow cake! way better … Please reconsider as Lead in our drinking water is unacceptable – Scientific American.
- Feb 7, 2014 – Tritium leaked into water from the Braidwood nuclear power plant. … for tritium that has found its way into water—so-called tritiated water, or HTO—along with risk … That is 160 times higher than the standard set back in 1977 by the fledgling …. Ionization is what makes radiation dangerous for human health. Scientific American
- NOAA-EPA-FDA Statement “U.S. Seafood Safe and Unaffected by Radiation Contamination from Japanese Nuclear Power Plant Incident; U.S. Monitoring Control Strategy Explained” http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Emergencies/UCM253896.pdf
- http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/01/36-signs-media-lying-fukushima-radiation-affecting-west-coast/
- Fukushima Radiation Concerns in Alaska
dec.alaska.gov › DEC › EH › Food Safety & Sanitation › Seafood - FDA Sampling Results of AK Fish All Non-Detect (ND) for Fukushima Related Radiation … presence of small amounts of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear … The sample, which was collected on February 19 in Ucluelet, British … The results of testing conducted on Alaskan fish in 2014 results showed no…
About the author:
Dr. Susan M. Walker, Educator, researcher, analyst, instructor, and single-mother. I have spent many years standing up for what is right despite, differing opinion. The purity of water, healthy foods, vitamins, minerals, disease, pesticides/herbicides, genetically modified organisms, and educating those interested in saving this earth by re-educating our children in a way that enables them to be guardians of our planet and not destroyers, is my focus. I hold four degrees, BS, MA, SPED, and ED.D. I have written and researched for over 14 years. Susan is currently developing a new website, but you can contact her by email at: [email protected]
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