Radioactive Imported Potatoes Found In Thailand

[MissingThailand]

Why didn't the THREAD headline read SWEET potato, as there are different spuds. Then it would pinpoint what type

Even more importantly, the THREAD headline should NOT read, "radioactive".... as they are certainly not radioactive.

Radioactive means they are emitting radiation, eg. a fuel rod is radioactive.

Contaminated is the word they need to use and hopefully will as a means to inform the public in an educated and not hysterical manner.

Not to be picky...but I sure hope you don't have a degree in nuclear engineering or health physics because you don't have a clue. These spuds definately are radioactive and are emitting radiation. If they are not emitting radiation how do you think they measured the radioactivity (x amount of Bq)? The radioactivity may be due to contamination but to say they are not radioactive is wrong. However, I do agree that the media has been reporting in a hysterical manner.

Let me help you out...

What Radioactive Contamination Is :

Radioactive contamination occurs when radioactive material is deposited on or in an object or a person. Radioactive materials released into the environment can cause air, water, surfaces, soil, plants, buildings, people, or animals to become contaminated. A contaminated person has radioactive materials on or inside their body.

Now then, the potatoes are not radioactive. It is the I-131 that is radioactive.

The very first sentence of the very first post (OP) has it right.

Thailand's Ministry of Public Health on Monday found radioactive contamination in sweet potatoes.

As I said, it is the thread title that is incorrect. It should have duplicated what was said in the OP.

Your unsaid apology is accepted.

.

No apology from me! That's like saying a fuel rod isn't radioactive, it's the Uranium (Pu, Cs, and the myriad of other fission and activation products) that are radioactive. I would also bet that the majority of the radioactivity is not I-133.

[appropriate]

You can all call me ignorant, but I'd rather not eat a potato that's contaminated with radiation having been imported from a country going through a nuclear 'problem' of unknown size, no matter how little the 'detectors' say they have.

Detectors have proven themselves wrong on many occasions, and certainly aren't trust worthy with something so serious.

Well done Thai authorities.

[newermonkey]

However the Public Health Ministry will destroy them in a safe way that prevents radiation spreading.

The notion that radiation which is already at a safe level could become dangerous by an inappropriate disposal method gets Win, Place and Show in the Ignorance Stakes.

The radiation cannot be destroyed but it can be encased in a dense material such as meter of concrete or 5 cm of lead to prevent the radiation from escaping, even low levels of exposure over time can cause health risks such as genetic damage and cell destruction. looks like it could become costly for the goverment if they insist on keeping it.

My advice is: send it back.

[Tywais]

You can all call me ignorant, but I'd rather not eat a potato that's contaminated with radiation having been imported from a country going through a nuclear 'problem' of unknown size, no matter how little the 'detectors' say they have.

[sausageandmash]

I usually cook a roast chicken once a week, with all the trimmings. I once tasted a chicken from a farm in Ubon and I actually preferred the supermarket one. This is the problem with all the chemicals they pump into food. They actually make food taste better, so if you took away the chemicals, food would taste quite bland.

Oh, my! And that on top of locally-grown veggies contaminated with all sorts of chemicals, hormone-infused pork and chicken, a generous dose of MSG in practically every bowl of noodle soup (and other dishes as well, mind you) and wonderfully healthy Kr***y Kr**e doughnuts and other trendy foods? Soon an entire nation will be sterile because of those potatos, I am certain.

[Cuban]

Does no one else wonder what is the policy for the disposal of radioactive contaminated waste? If it is Iodine 131 with a half life of a 8 days - left isolated in a warehouse corner for a few months would be good enough, I'm sure after a few weeks many would have evaporated by natural processes anyway.

Is it really worth shipping just 75 Kg of Sweet Potato internationally ?

[newermonkey]

Does no one else wonder what is the policy for the disposal of radioactive contaminated waste? If it is Iodine 131 with a half life of a 8 days - left isolated in a warehouse corner for a few months would be good enough, I'm sure after a few weeks many would have evaporated by natural processes anyway.

Is it really worth shipping just 75 Kg of Sweet Potato internationally ?

Perhaps the 75kg lot was to test the route then, if not checked they can then send tones of plutonium irradiated food that they got cheap, to the ignorant recipients.

A good guide will be that the food on the supermarket shelves will stay fresh for months!!!!

Edited March 29, 2011 by newermonkey

[newermonkey]

I usually cook a roast chicken once a week, with all the trimmings. I once tasted a chicken from a farm in Ubon and I actually preferred the supermarket one. This is the problem with all the chemicals they pump into food. They actually make food taste better, so if you took away the chemicals, food would taste quite bland.

Oh, my! And that on top of locally-grown veggies contaminated with all sorts of chemicals, hormone-infused pork and chicken, a generous dose of MSG in practically every bowl of noodle soup (and other dishes as well, mind you) and wonderfully healthy Kr***y Kr**e doughnuts and other trendy foods? Soon an entire nation will be sterile because of those potatos, I am certain.

I bet a succulent Cesium-137 chicken with with freshly roasted Uranium-235 potatoes and a good helping of Thorium carrots lavishly topped off with some rich Plutonium 239 gravy and oh almost forgot a good dollop of sage and Radium stuffing would go down well with a cool pint of Iodine-135 Mmmm Yummy

Edited March 29, 2011 by newermonkey

[drdoom6996]

But the veggies we get from China contaminated with all kinds of chemicals is ok. Once again scare tactics for the public.

[Payboy]

Is it really worth shipping just 75 Kg of Sweet Potato internationally ?

Report 75kg doesn't necessarily mean just 75kg was shipped.

[whybother]

Have they started pulling all sweet potatoes off the shop shelves yet?

[Tokay]

Yea, but Suthep said.......

[Nisa]

Now then, the potatoes are not radioactive. It is the I-131 that is radioactive.

That's being a little pedantic. Take a look at Los Alamos and their reference to "radioactive" ants, radioactive plants, radioactive waste. Los Alamos Study Group. Considering they developed and still develop nuclear weapons, seems correcting them of the use of the term would be misplaced.

Agree. "IF" it is impossible for potatoes to be radioactive then nobody should be confused by the headline. What would be confusing to people is to say they are not radioactive.

It is like saying a painkiller pill is not a painkiller pill because the majority of the pill is made up of nonactive ingredients or that you couldn't call a certain specious of berries "poisonous berries" that contain a tiny amount of a specific poison in relation to their greater make-up being that of a eatable berry.

[sunholidaysun1]

What about the pesticides sprayed on the fruit and veg here , let alone the produce from China and Japan. I would think there is a level of radiation in all fruit and veg regardless of where its from .

Er, pesticides are chemicals, not 'radiation'.

Totally different things.

I know that Rick, the point I was trying to make was that there is radiation in all fruit and veg etc and the point about pesticides is that we know they are used and what levels used are important. Chemicals and radiation if above the safety limit then of course we are in danger if we eat them.

I dont see to many checks made on veg or fruit grown and sold here .Only because of the Japan crisis are the Thais trying to make a point in doing something about it . What about all the other times that they dont.

[Puschl]

The potatoes are unlikely to contain radioactive iodine, with a half life of 8 days. It is most probably radioactive caesium with a 30 year half life. Plants incorporate potassium and caesium is a more active member of the same group.

I hope they base their claim (15.25 Bq of I-131 per kg of sweet potato, uncertainty limits not reported) on spectrometric analysis rather than on extrapolation from a dosimeter readout, but:

He said the FDA will re-examine the contaminated sweet potato to determine whether the radiation level will fall or not and that the agency will also discuss with the Office of Atoms for Peace regarding the destruction of the contaminated imports.

If they re-examine the same batch, then it means they try to figure out the half-life. If it doesn't fall considerably, it's long-lived (e.g. Cs-137). If the contaminant is I-131, in a week the activity should be about half. Might also be bad translation, and they talk about (re???)-examining future imports to see how the contamination levels evolve.

However, caesium, radioactive or otherwise, is not stored in the body like iodine, it is rapidly excreted via sweat and urine.

I keep on reading this statement all over the place. One might think monitoring of Cs-137 concentrations is ungrounded. But it's done with good reason.

To be clear: what you said is not false. Unlike iodine, which primarily deposits in the thyroid, cesium does not accumulate in a particular part of the body. It gets distributed all over, and will eventually be excreted.

It's the rapidly that I object to. The 'biological half-life' of Cs-137 is 110 days (source: hqusareur). Roughly speaking, half of the cesium that makes it past your intestinal barrier will still be in your body after three and a half months.

If cesium would accumulate, incorporation of 1Bq of Cs-137 (one atom of Cs-137 decaying per second) would result in about 1.37 billion decays eventually happening inside your body (calculated over a Methusalem's lifetime. Multiply with 0.75 if you plan to live only for the next 60 years). With the "rapid excretion" this number is reduced to 13.6 million. So the total lifetime dose is reduced by a factor of 100. Put differently, out of the 1.37 billion Cs-137 atoms corresponding to 1 Bq, only 1% will decay inside your body.

By comparison, 1Bq of I-131 translates into (almost exactly) 1 million atoms, out of which 500 000 will decay during the first 8 days, then 250 000 during the next 8 days, and so on.

15Bq of I-131 is nothing to panic, particularly if your thyroid gland is saturated with stable iodine (e.g. from iodized salt). A male adult contains roughly 100 Bq of K-40 per kg of body weight (potential banana equivalent dose for cannibals). Of course Bq don't directly translate into rate of damage done. But they give an idea of the order of magnitude.

Regardless, I feel an urge to avoid seaweed in the years to come, just like I drastically cut down on wild alpine mushrooms since '86, almost one Cs-137 half-life ago.

[MissingThailand]

The potatoes are unlikely to contain radioactive iodine, with a half life of 8 days. It is most probably radioactive caesium with a 30 year half life. Plants incorporate potassium and caesium is a more active member of the same group.

I hope they base their claim (15.25 Bq of I-131 per kg of sweet potato, uncertainty limits not reported) on spectrometric analysis rather than on extrapolation from a dosimeter readout, but:

He said the FDA will re-examine the contaminated sweet potato to determine whether the radiation level will fall or not and that the agency will also discuss with the Office of Atoms for Peace regarding the destruction of the contaminated imports.

If they re-examine the same batch, then it means they try to figure out the half-life. If it doesn't fall considerably, it's long-lived (e.g. Cs-137). If the contaminant is I-131, in a week the activity should be about half. Might also be bad translation, and they talk about (re???)-examining future imports to see how the contamination levels evolve.

However, caesium, radioactive or otherwise, is not stored in the body like iodine, it is rapidly excreted via sweat and urine.

I keep on reading this statement all over the place. One might think monitoring of Cs-137 concentrations is ungrounded. But it's done with good reason.

To be clear: what you said is not false. Unlike iodine, which primarily deposits in the thyroid, cesium does not accumulate in a particular part of the body. It gets distributed all over, and will eventually be excreted.

It's the rapidly that I object to. The 'biological half-life' of Cs-137 is 110 days (source: hqusareur). Roughly speaking, half of the cesium that makes it past your intestinal barrier will still be in your body after three and a half months.

If cesium would accumulate, incorporation of 1Bq of Cs-137 (one atom of Cs-137 decaying per second) would result in about 1.37 billion decays eventually happening inside your body (calculated over a Methusalem's lifetime. Multiply with 0.75 if you plan to live only for the next 60 years). With the "rapid excretion" this number is reduced to 13.6 million. So the total lifetime dose is reduced by a factor of 100. Put differently, out of the 1.37 billion Cs-137 atoms corresponding to 1 Bq, only 1% will decay inside your body.

By comparison, 1Bq of I-131 translates into (almost exactly) 1 million atoms, out of which 500 000 will decay during the first 8 days, then 250 000 during the next 8 days, and so on.

15Bq of I-131 is nothing to panic, particularly if your thyroid gland is saturated with stable iodine (e.g. from iodized salt). A male adult contains roughly 100 Bq of K-40 per kg of body weight (potential banana equivalent dose for cannibals). Of course Bq don't directly translate into rate of damage done. But they give an idea of the order of magnitude.

Regardless, I feel an urge to avoid seaweed in the years to come, just like I drastically cut down on wild alpine mushrooms since '86, almost one Cs-137 half-life ago.

Please don't let people think that eating iodized salt will help prevent I-133 absorption in the thyroid! The concentration of Iodine is way to low to do any good.

[Puschl]

Please don't let people think that eating iodized salt will help prevent I-133 absorption in the thyroid! The concentration of Iodine is way to low to do any good.

My bad. It was certainly not my intention to suggest increased consumption of iodized salt (nor the intake of potassium iodide tablets, for that matter). Self-medication without consulting experts is never wise. Don't take potassium iodide tablets while the authorities don't advise to. Those readers who notoriously distrust the Thai authorities might want to follow the situation in Taiwan, Hawaii and Singapore.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Puschl