You are here

Home

Environment and Public Health

Primary tabs

Thu, 2011-03-24 12:57 — mdmcdonald
The Environment and Public Health Working Group is focused on minimizing negative health impacts from the Tohoku earthquake and cascading effects.

The mission of the Environment and Public Health Working Group is to minimize negative health impacts from the Tohoku earthquake,tsunami, safety problems with Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant and cascading effects on Japanese society.

Working Group email address:  ***@***.***

Add Content to this group

Click to add a new Group Post Simple to this group
Click to add a new Group Post Simple w Images to this group
Click to add a new Group Post to this group
Click to add a new PRIVATE Group Post to this group
Click to add a new TASK to this group

Members

Jason Jackson Kathy Gilbeaux Katie Rast mdmcdonald Patrick Young Yuki Karakawa
Subscribe to group

Email address for group

environment-and-public-health@m.resiliencesystem.org

Radioactivity in Sea Up 7.5 Million Times - Marine Life Contamination Well Beyond Japan Feared

Wed, 2011-04-06 15:53 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Japan Times - by Kanako Takahara - April 5, 2011

Radioactive iodine-131 readings taken from seawater near the water intake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's No. 2 reactor reached 7.5 million times the legal limit, Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted Tuesday.

The sample that yielded the high reading was taken Saturday, before Tepco announced Monday it would start releasing radioactive water into the sea, and experts fear the contamination may spread well beyond Japan's shores to affect seafood overseas.

The unstoppable radioactive discharge into the Pacific has prompted experts to sound the alarm, as cesium, which has a much longer half-life than iodine, is expected to concentrate in the upper food chain.

According to Tepco, some 300,000 becquerels per sq. centimeter of radioactive iodine-131 was detected Saturday, while the amount of cesium-134 was 2 million times the maximum amount permitted and cesium-137 was 1.3 million times the amount allowable.

The amount of iodine-131 dropped to 79,000 becquerels per sq. centimeter Sunday but shot up again Monday to 200,000 becquerels, 5 million times the permissible amount.

Maps - Crowd-Sourced Realtime Radiation Monitoring

Sun, 2011-04-03 22:27 — Kathy Gilbeaux

There are now hundreds of radiation-related feeds from Japan on Pachube, monitoring conditions in realtime and underpinning more than half a dozen incredibly valuable applications built by people around the world. They combine 'official' data, 'unofficial' official data, and, most importantly to us, realtime networked geiger counter measurements contributed by concerned citizens.   Now we're even seeing some tracking radiation measurements of tap water.

Google Earth powered by Pachube.com

rdtn.org

Japan Geigermap


Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) - Higher Levels of Radioactive Iodine in Seawater Detected - March 26, 2011

Sat, 2011-03-26 16:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

UPDATE AS OF 9:30 A.M. EDT, MARCH 26, 2011

Japanese scientists yesterday detected higher levels of radioactive iodine in seawater at water outlets near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

"Iodine 131 was detected at a level 1,250 times the national safety limit," Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said during a news conference. Officials said there is no immediate danger to residents near the plant from these levels.

Samples taken on Friday were significantly higher than those taken on Wednesday, which had 147 times the legal concentration of I-131. Authorities said the concentration of radioactive materials in the water will decrease as the water is diluted by ocean currents. Indeed, a sample taken at 8:50 a.m. on Friday had one-fifth the concentration of I-131 as the earlier measurement. Three subsequent measurements that morning showed fluctuation. All were below the highest level found at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.

Free (on-line) Training - Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response

Thu, 2011-03-24 14:43 — Patrick Young

This introductory level training addresses a range of environmental health topics commonly faced in response to emergency events. The training helps prepare practitioners with the skills and knowledge to effectively respond to environmental health issues. The training includes a combination of lecture, hands-on, and demonstration components. You will learn about emergency response aspects such as assessing shelter operations, food, water, wastewater, building environments, and vector control. The training is intended for environmental health, safety, or industrial hygiene professionals from federal, state, and local programs with the responsibility to perform one or a combination of the following functions in an emergency response:  food services / sanitation / vector control / drinking water / wastewater / institutional sanitation / safety inspections.

http://www.nehacert.org/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28"

 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Thu, 2011-03-24 14:38 — Patrick Young

Excellent resource for environmental information regarding radiation

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/

Japanese Nuclear Emergency:  Radiation Monitoring - from the EPA

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/radnet-sampling-data.html

RadNet Laboratory Analysis - from the EPA

http://opendata.socrata.com/Government/RadNet-Laboratory-Analysis/cf4r-dfwe

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Web site

Thu, 2011-03-24 14:33 — Patrick Young

 

For environmental health information:

http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tsunamis/

Pages

howdy folks