Just wondering how up to speed the Mormon God is in anticipating 21st-centuiry health hazards.

Just wondering, due to the Fukushima nuclear melt down of 11 March 2011.

I've been drinking green tea for my health, but maybe buying tea grown in Japan is not so healthy after all.

Turn all the lights off, if you are emitting a low greenish glow it's probably time to switch brand.

Depends on the green! LOL.

Things more radioactive than tea:
Bananas, since they are high in potassium, and radioactive potassium is a product of the natural decay of uranium.

Utah, because of the altitude, less atmospheric shielding for UV and higher energy cosmic rays.

Wintertime air along the Wasatch Front, which is not all that radioactive, but it contains carcinogenic chemicals.

Salt Lake Valley east bench, especially the southeast bench, because of all the granite that has washed down out of the canyons. Granite is naturally high in uranium, which is radioactive in its own right, and decays into radioactive potassium, mentioned above, and radon gas, which is much more dangerous, because it is a gas you can inhale.

Granite kitchen countertops are a measurable source of radiation for the same reason.

Eating plants or animals from areas where the ground has naturally high levels of radioactive elements. WY and UT fall in that category. Beware of local beef and farmers markets!

On the other hand, you are far more likely to be killed or injured in a car accident on the way to the store than you are from all those sources of radiation combined.

The only way to know for sure is to spend a couple hundred dollars on a Geiger counter and check for yourself but I would agree with Brother of Jerry that, even if there is some contamination, you are probably being exposed to more radiation from local sources. Personally, I would be more concerned with the danger from radon gas, which is a serious problem in many parts of Utah.

These articles might help...

http://www.teamuse.com/article_110701.html

http://www.radon.utah.gov/realest.htm#zipmap


This chart does a great job of putting radiation exposure in our daily lives into perspective...

http://xkcd.com/radiation/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2014 09:20AM by Mnemonic.

That's how old I am.....:)

KW

PS. Tinfoil and a #10 aluminum can. Suspend the tinfoil from your hat of the same substance and.....

I was living in Tokyo when the accident occurred. It was crazy, no one knew what the hell was happening. I spent a lot of time researching radiation, nuclear energy, spent fuel pools and the danger they are, etc.

Long story short, there is no danger from the tea now. Now, if you were to drink a swimming pool of tea a day, then yes, you would have a problem.

Not from radiation, but from having to piss a pool-worth of tea every day.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I will continue to drink green tea but, I will switch to a brand from Kenya, or

I have been to Tokyo a couple of times since the tsunami,and we watch the Japanese news daily. If you were consuming seaweed or fish from the area immediately around Fukushima, you should be cautious, because some radiation continues to wash out into the sea. However, levels are closely monitored, and it appears that Americans really overreacted to the whole threat. No other country pulled their citizens out the same way. Most tea is not grown in that area. This blogger from near the plant describes where tea is grown; 80 percent cones from other parts of Japan. People have returned to that area to live. Outside a small area surrounding the plant, radiation levels have returned to normal.

http://www.o-cha.com/greentea.htm



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2014 02:24PM by vh65.

No. Whatever food is on the market in Japan is generally safe to consume.
Not to mention, the majority of Japanese tea is grown in Shizuoka, which is quite far away from Fukushima. Please, no scaremongering and trolling.

If you don't want to drink Japanese tea because of your fears, then fine, but I don't want people spreading misinformation or fear or inaccurate information. The only people here in Japan who are as worried as you are about radiation in food that's available to purchase here, are the conspiracy theorist types and extremist/far-left wingers. That's because there's nothing to worry about when it comes to Japanese tea or other types of food for that matter. But to each their own.

Oh, that's so good to know. And I read in the Tokyo papers that choco rations are up, so double plus good! :)

LivinginJapan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
That's because there's nothing to worry
> about when it comes to Japanese tea or other types
> of food for that matter. But to each their own.

let's revisit this again in 10 years please

I'd be willing to bet than in 10 years, most Japanese people would be alive and kicking. The fact that the food available here in Japan is safe to consume, and the only people here that have immense worries about it within Japan, are conspiracy theorist types and extremist left-wingers. That says a lot.

But if you want to believe that in 10 years time, that we'll see a huge number of health problems directly or mostly due to Fukushima, you are free to do so. I must admit that the vast majority of Japanese people do not share your fears about it. The reality in 10 years will probably contradict all this fearmongering.

whatever you say (err, I mean, whatever the Japanese government keeps telling you!) I'm sure they are being 100% honest.

You'll keep saying that until Gojira steps out of the harbour to crush Ginza. ;)

Absolutely not. The panic and scare tactics of media and government are ridiculous. This may help:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/05/04/cancer-and-death-by-radiation-not-from-fukushima/

I wouldn't worry about it, as you get more radiation when you get an x-ray at the dentist's office than you would from Japanese tea. Anyway, the region where tea is grown wasn't near Fukushima.

Then essential difference between X-ray and radionuclide contaminated tea is, the X-ray is a ray, but the tea could very well contain a hot radionuclide particle. Do you know what happens when a person ingests a hot particle? Vastly different outcome from an X-ray exposure.

Comparing the effects of hot particles with those of rays and "plutonium bananas" is absurd.

And we have evidence that hot particles from Fukushima have traveled throughout the northern hemisphere (indeed, by 4/01/11), with higher concentrations in certain areas, like Japan. So simple distance from ground zero is not necessarily a guarantee of no contamination. And there is NO "harmless" level of radioactive contamination, it is ALL harmful to some degree.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2014 09:01PM by hello.

& when you can't then say, 'it doesn't matter' & compare it to the radiation in a bannana or a counter top LOL

yes a hot particle ingested matters. yes being a down winder matters. yes being near a nuclear accident after years of exposure from being near an above ground test range, or a leaky storage facility, or past accidents, for the individuals involved matters. Every new layering of exposure - to the individual- very much matters. But so does dancing.

when the fear of living through dying or dying interferes with living, that matters.

I'm seeing more young colleagues heart attacks, more young colleagues babies with 'near leukemia' or leukemia who went carrying their babies one fateful week in the rain one stupid weekend one stupid week. no one's talking about it because there's nothing you can do about it. dancing matters.

for the very old among us lest your lack of fear of death contaminate your critical thought, every hot particle matters for those not yet condemned through ill health age or other infirmity- every hot particle avoided is a years of life advanced. more years to dance.

you have to weigh your odds & dance. I begged my husband to bring home a geiger counter & he refused. CAn I share with you the a harrowing absurdity: I met a survivalist prepper's wife prepping carefully her year's supply in hand cept she couldn't breath the air in the place she prepped to survive with inhalers. And her husband god love him diligently prepping pounding hand made guns on his forge shares his garden where no plants will grow without well water 300 feet down. LOL like that's gonna last armaghedon or the power grid off whichever is first. Can we get more stupid? another absurdity a science professor pounding itty bitty particles X micron size further into his lung tissue in hazardous air quality because he is aware he could have a heart attack now less than a year into forced air nightly treatments to prevent one thing hes diagnosed with copd asthma for the first time ever. In his initial fear he directed, into his lungs under pressure every night hazardous air quality X micron not using a hepa filter. Fear.

oh, despite the (insert distance from nearest identified national clean up site)- hot particle. um btw my tea's from China usually because that's what it says on the box.

ok- I got it, their arguments, it is an absurdity.

but,

Where's the dancing? So what if we live on the edge of a habitable ecosystem. Dance. live it write it sing it wring it be it. do i.t right now dream it be it right now
to do less is absurd. hot particles anyone? anywhere? dance dance

you can say that's incoherent if you want, that may be if you don't like what I'm saying. Just imagine if it was your worst fear, wouldn't you just dance? If that hot particle is in you- can't you dance? If its somewhere else- or in someone else why interupt or disrupt their dance? no one else is saying the layering of exposures disrupting or interupting cell dividing nor differing pasts meeting the genome- who is to say who is not invulnerable, who is known or will ever know their own vulnerability? I think its time to dance. just dance.

since my first tumor, my husband wouldn't let me pick up the pretty rocks at the edge of the nuclear power reactor water feeds LOL moss agate samples (sigh)
since my first tumor my husband wouldn't let me rent a place on a spit of land surrounded by rocks waves crashing across on the pacific ocean by a decommissioned nuclear power plant. (sigh) my favorite place to walk beside LOL oh! who knew!
my husband says, ____ humans are harder to kill than cockroaches (sigh) he comforts me when I think of my babies grown up after their tumors. I ask them too to dance- dream dreams- go places- be.

effervesent. not lulled into paralysis from a threat that is ever present. be. dance.

Nice post and I agree. I'm 63 and have had 2 open heart surgeries and breast cancer that came back a couple of years ago after 11 years (and in a mastectomy site). I am busy dancing as fast as I can. I'm traveling and playing as many musical instruments I can get my hands on. As far as I know, I'm completely free of cancer and healthy - but I always think in the back of my mind that it could come sneaking back 10, 20 or even 30 years later. I never take anything for granted and smell the roses every day. Oh, and watch the birds too.

Take care,

Carol

P.S Yes, I drink Japanese green tea daily as I just love the flavor and our kitchen has granite counter tops, although they are about 15 years old. And no, nothing worries me anymore.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2014 12:54PM by cwpenrose.

Current resident of Tokyo here (+21 years now).
Judging by the huge volume of different brands of green tea available in vending machines throughout the city, convenience stores, grocery stores, supermarkets, etc...
As far as I can see, the average Japanese consumer has not a care in the world about rad levels in the tea. And they consume a lot! Additionally, they are all pretty well informed. So, if they don't worry, should I? No, I don't. Crossing the street, in a crosswalk (!), is more dangerous here. Relax, enjoy your tea. ;)

Agreed!

this is why god created geiger counters.
This is idea is testable.

Geiger counters won't cut it. You need a scintillation detector, and the knowledge to go with it.

Problem is twofold. It only takes a miniscule amount of the nasty stuff to cause problems, but that same miniscule amount is VERY hard to detect, impossible with a GM counter. It can wreck your body but won't register on all but the most sensitive instruments.

Who knows where the truth is. Sure fanatics are stirring things up, but governments and industry also have an interest in quashing info, because negative info is bad for business (and everything is a business).

As I said earlier in the thread, I was in Japan when the incident occurred, and I had to do a lot of studying really quickly. That’s when I found out about all the particulars of which of the material is more dangerous and which isn’t that much to worry about. Our kids were really small at the time, 6 and 30 months, and since the younger you are, the more susceptible you are to harm from radiation, then we took it really seriously.

For people in the US drinking green tea from Japan, if you are concerned about risk, then yes, stop drinking it. Every time you get in your car and drive to the supermarket, you face far worse odds than drinking bathtubs of the stuff daily.