Petitions to Lower Radiation Allowed in Food

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Citizens Demand FDA Monitor Radioactivity in U.S. Food. Set Protective Limits.
[Scroll down for videos.]

Transpacific jet streams carries Fukushima fallout


Fukushima Fallout Continues to Reach U.S.
Two years ago March 2011, radioactive fallout from the Fukushima triple nuclear meltdowns and explosions crossed the Pacific, rained down the North American west coast, swept eastward across the continent, across the Atlantic to European countries and showed up in the southern hemisphere in Brazil. Radioactive contamination – identifiably from Fukushima – was measured in air, water, milk, fish, vegetables and fruit. Then the U.S. government cut back its radioactive air monitoring program.

But still everyday, two years later, radioactive fallout continues to spew out of Fukushima’s still-uncontained nuclear disaster and heads off across the Pacific in a constant stream toward North America. [ see: Mainstream Media Awakens to the fact that Fukushima Is Still a Total Mess ]

Petition to FDA Filed.

EON, together with Citizen’s for Health, Beyond Nuclear [ FFAN.us ]and other groups and individuals in our alliance Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network, FFAN, have filed a petition to the FDA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking for monitoring and testing of our food and lowering the allowable levels of cesium 134 and cesium 137 from 1200 becquerals per kilogram (bq./kg.) (a becqueral is one radioactive disintegration per second) to 5 bq./kg. Read our petition and attachments here.

When monitoring technology improves, we hope to be able to measure to zero since all radiation poses risks, especially to fetuses and children, girls, women, the elderly and immune-compromised. Radioactive particles if ingested, bio-accumulate in different organs and tissue and continue to irradiate internally. Dr. Bandashevsky measured tissue samples of Belarus children after Chernobyl and found disease beginning at 11 bq./kg.and permanent damage by 50 bq./kg. How long would it take for a child to build that amount of radiation internally from eating highly irradiated food? [ See: Non cancer illnesses and conditions in areas of Belarus contaminated by radioactivity from the
Chernobyl Accident
– Prof. Yuri Bandashevsky – Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania ]

Your comments about why you think FDA food monitoring is important can be added to our FDA petition. Click the ‘comments’ button on the right of the FDA page. This allows comments in support of our already filed petition to the FDA on the FDA site.

You can also help influence the FDA decision-makers by signing the Citizen’s Sign On Petition.

We encourage you to sign petition for individual members of the public . We’ll also send the signatures on the Public Petition to the FDA to let them know how broad public support is for this vital checking of our food supply. PLEASE forward this to your networks and social media lists!

Man-made toxic radiation has been building in our environment since the 1950’s. Hundreds of above-ground nuclear tests deposited cesium, strontium 90, plutonium and other long-lived radionuclides over the planet. Releases from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island still radiate plus routine radioactive releases from the over 104 U.S. nuclear reactors continue (PDF).

Today the multiple explosions and ongoing triple meltdowns and damaged intensely irradiated used fuel rods from Fukushima are constantly emitting radiation into Japanese groundwater, the Pacific ocean and the air. ( A low estimate is 10 million becquerals per hour of radioactivity constantly released.)

Elevated levels of Fukushima radioactivity have been detected in California seaweed, Bluefin tuna, almonds, dried plums, oranges and pistachios from California as well as from food and milk from other states.

For many months after Fukushima’s disaster began, the U.C. Berkeley School of Nuclear Engineering tested many samples of northern California berries, vegetables, milk and topsoil and found higher levels of radiation than normal.

The current U.S. allowable level of radiation in food is 1200 becquerals per kilogram (bq/kg), one of the highest and least protective in the world!

And, it’s not even a binding law, but just a ‘guidance.’ At 1200 bq./kg. we could be accepting irradiated food from Japan that would be too irradiated for the Japanese limit of 100 bq/kg.

And even 100 bq./kg, is an increase from before the Fukushima disaster. Before Fukushima,100 bq./kg. would have been treated as nuclear waste in Japan!

Supporting Resources
Libbe HaLevy’s Nuclear Hot Seat Podcast – #95: Radiation & Food Safety: FFAN Actions w/Cindy Folkers, Mary Beth Brangan

FFAN director Kimberly Roberson’s excellent book Silence Deafening, Fukushima Fallout … A Mother’s Response – is a good overview of radiation in food.

Here is a simulation from NOAA of Cesium dispersion from just two weeks of Fukushima fallout.

Cindy Folkers, of BeyondNuclear.org, gave this informative presentation (15 min.) as part of the 2-day international symposium on ‘The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident,’ held at the New York Academy of Medicine, NYC, March 11 & 12, 2013, co-sponsored by The Helen Caldicott Foundation and Physicians for Social Responsibility. [ Full program videos viewable here: https://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=hcf ]

Miki Day, concerned Japanese mother living in California, tells of the contaminated food in Japan and the sad situation for children in Fukushima. She speaks out against the dangerous plan to restart California’s San Onofre nuclear reactor without fixing it and is working to prevent a Fukushima from happening here. (7 min.)

The International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War and German food watch report for recommendations to reduce the limits for radioactivity in food in the EU. {Download PDF here}

As the fantasy of a nukes-forever future fades, pro-nuke nonsense goes off the charts:
Fake Science Alert: Fukushima Radiation Can’t Be Compared to Bananas or X-Rays

Bottom line: there is no safe limit of radioactivity in food. We need to know what to feed our families!

Stop the nuclear industry – close all nuclear power and weapons facilities before they irreparably damage the planetary biosystems and all its creatures.

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