Petition to FDA Requests Sampling of Food for Radiation Resulting from Fukushima Catastrope

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ACTION ALERT:   Public comments in support of the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network citizens’ petition to the FDA are due September 11, 2013.  Please go to the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network to submit public comments.  http://ffan.us/?p=277  Or go to the Beyond Nuclear website and follow the instruction to submit comments.  http://www.beyondnuclear.org/food/  For more information, please read the CCNS News Update below.

 

 

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 9/6/13 through 9/13/13

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

  • Petition to FDA Requests Sampling of Food for Radiation Resulting from Fukushima Catastrophe

In March, public health and environmental non-governmental organizations filed a citizens’ petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) demanding that the federal agency drastically reduce the amount of radioactive cesium allowed in food, nutritional supplements and pharmaceuticals and develop regulations to protect consumers from such pollutants.  Coalition members of the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network, including Beyond Nuclear and Citizens for Health, petitioned the FDA to lower the radiation standards from 1,200 Bequerels per kilogram to 5 Bequerels per kilogram.  http://ffan.us/  A Becquerel is a measurement of radiation.  They are asking that all food be tested and labeled with the amount of cesium contained in it.  The Network requests your support of their petition.   http://ffan.us/?p=277 and http://www.beyondnuclear.org/food/

The National Academy of Sciences determined that there is no safe dose of radiation.  http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11340  The petition states that consumers must have the necessary information in order to manage their own intake of cesium.  Currently the FDA standards allow 1,200 Becquerels per kilogram in food, an amount 100 times higher than that allowed in Japan.

The damaged Fukushima nuclear power reactors continue to leak more than 10 million Becquerels of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 per hour into the environment, with no sign of stopping.  Every day there is more news about how Tepco, the operator of the damaged reactors, does not have the ability to stop the leaking, nor the emissions into the air and contamination of the soil.  http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18556-abe-at-ground-zero-the-consequences-of-inaction-at-fukushima-daiichi and http://truth-out.org/video/item/18661-record-radiation-levels-at-fukushima-nuclear-plant (interview with Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research).

Cesium is a gamma emitter and a good tracer for releases from the spent fuel pools.  Cesium-134 remains radioactive for 10 to 20 years, while Cesium-137 remains radioactive for 300 to 600 years.  Cesium mimics potassium in the body.  Over time, cesium bio-accumulates and bio-magnifies in the environment.

Contamination of the U.S. food supply has been found in grapefruits in Florida and oranges, prunes and almonds in California.  In 2012, Bluefin tuna found off the coast of California had levels of radioactive cesium 10 times higher than the amount measured in previous years.  They spawn off the Japan coast and swim 6,000 miles across the Pacific to school in the waters off the California coast.

The American Medical Association has called for testing of seafood.  http://ffan.us/?p=253  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced late last month that it will begin testing fish off the coast of British Columbia.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/08/19/bc-salmon-radiation-testing.html

Alexis Lynn Baden-Mayer, Political Director of the Organic Consumers Association, a sponsor of the petition, said, “The threat of contamination in our food supply is a long-term issue that deserves immediate attention.”  http://ffan.us/

To support the citizens’ petition, please go to the Beyond Nuclear website and follow the instructions.  http://www.beyondnuclear.org/food/  Because the FDA has 180 days to respond, the Network requests your attention prior to September 11, 2013.   http://ffan.us/?p=277

 

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org.

 

Comments: 1

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  • William Brown

    My personal opinion is that the FDA and other government regulatory agencies have sold out their responsibility for safe food to the Factory Farms and Power Plant owners, including the Nuclear Power Plant industry…. Please begin applying a reliable behavior in behalf of the American people by doing what it takes to render our food SAFE, you blundering, sold out fools..

     
     
     
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