Concerns of radioactive material travelling here far-fetched
Posted March 18, 2011 8:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A local nuclear scientist says we’re simply too far away for radiation levels in Japan to pose a health risk for people in BC.
Health experts from Los Angeles to Vancouver have publicly stated that radiation released in the atmosphere in Japan will not be a health threat to people living in North America.
Tim Meyer with the nuclear physics lab TRIUMF says, “After 8,000 kilometres of travel and dispersion, it’s not a risk at all for us in Canada. There’s even some debates about when and how it might be measurable.”
“We’re still looking at a situation where the largest impact is going to be on that northeast corner of Japan, and certainly within a 10 kilometre radius around the plant,” he adds.
The latest reports out of Vienna say Japan’s radioactive fallout has reached Southern California, but the first readings are “about a billion times lower than the levels that would be considered a health threat.” But Meyer disputes that.
“The concerns about radioactive material being dispersed into the atmosphere and then travelling by wind over to Western Canada is far-fetched,” he says. “The degree of radioactive material that’s actually been sent into the atmosphere is quite small.”
