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British Columbia | Home Home Search Primary Menu Skip to contentWell-nighInFORMal E-News InFORM Scientists InFORMal Scientists InFORMal Science Photos Partners InFORM Monitoring InFORMal E-News MethodsResiderScience Gamma Spectroscopy Marine Biota Monitoring Methods for Other Radionuclides (WHOI CMER) Biota Oceanic Coastal Archived Results Radiation Research By Location Japan Fukushima NW Pacific N Pacific NE Pacific British Columbia North America Chernobyl By Sample Type Algae Atmospheric Human Marine Life Model Plants & Fungi Seawater Sediment By Isotope Cesium Iodine Plutonium Polonium Potassium Strontium Tellurium Uranium Xenon Presentations & Media Presentations Media Interviews Resources InFORMing Research FAQ Radiological Monitoring at the Radiation Protection Bureau of Health Canada IAEA Inter-laboratory Comparison Report 2014-2016 Official IAEA Report on the Fukushima DaiichiWreckingUNSCEAR 2017 Report on Levels and Effects of Radiation Exposure Methods for Other Radionuclides (WHOI CMER) Safety lessons learned from Fukushima: Part 1 – National Acadamies Report Safety lessons learned from Fukushima: Part 2 – National Acadamies Report Health Canada Observations Post-Disaster Canadian Radiological Monitoring Network Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials Guidelines Search for: Category Archives: British Columbia British Columbia, Cesium, Marine Life, Peer Reviewed, Potassium, Sediment Monitoring Fukushima Contamination in Pacific Salmon and Soil in British Columbia March 11, 2018 fukushimainform Leave a scuttlebutt Beautiful sockeye salmon photographed by Eiko Jones. Seven years on, since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, it is useful to start to bring together information from scientific studies of the impact of the contamination on the North American environment and its people. I recently wrote to communicate the most recent results of the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide (InFORM) project. This post summarizes a recently published, peer-reviewed paper by colleagues lead by Dr. Krzyzstof Starosta of Simon Fraser University in BC working in parallel to InFORM. The unshut wangle paper was published in the CanadianPeriodicalof Chemistry and was recently recognized with the  “Best Paper Award” by the journal. They studied the concentrations of anthropogenic radioisotopes (134Cs half-life ~2 years, 137Cs half-life ~30 years) and naturally occurring radioisotope 40K (half-life 1.25 billion years) in Pacific salmon (sockeye, chum and chinook) and in soil and roof trash placid in southern British Columbia to determine the local impact of the FDNPP accident.  Their results were as follows: 134Cs (a fingerprint of Fukushima contamination) was not detected in any of the salmon samples 137Cs was not detected in sockeye or chum salmon but was detected in all chinook with an stereotype level of ~0.2 Bq kg-1Yearlydose from strained radionuclides to a human consumer of chinook salmon was unscientific to be ~1/300 of the dose owing to naturally occurring isotopes in the fish and ~1/30,000 of the yearly dose experienced for all other natural sources by the stereotype Canadian Most soil samples contained 134Cs and 137Cs which was delivered to the region by atmospheric transport shortly without the disaster Levels of Fukushima radioisotopes in soil did not tideway levels known to be harmful to living organisms Consistent with other monitoring in the zone the results of the study indicate that given the trace levels of contamination present the impact of the FDNPP wrecking on ecosystem and public health in North America will be insignificant.Protractreading Monitoring Fukushima Contamination in Pacific Salmon and Soil in British Columbia → Advertisements ChinookChumSalmonSockeyeSoilStarosta British Columbia, Cesium,ResiderScience, InFORMing Research, Location, Monitoring, N Pacific, NE Pacific, North America, Peer Reviewed Update on Fukushima Monitoring Activities in North America: 7 Years On March 9, 2018 fukushimainform Leave a scuttlebutt The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) and surroundings surpassing the tragic events of March 11, 2011 By Jay T. Cullen The purpose of this post is to bring the polity up to stage on monitoring efforts aimed at understanding the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) wrecking on environmental and public health. This post is part of an ongoing series and will focus on North American monitoring, summarizing work carried out by the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project. Seven years since the peak in releases to the environment our project continues to measure environmental levels of radioisotopes that could represent a radiological health risk to living things. InFORM makes measurements of levels in seawater and worldwide marine organisms as consumption of seafood is one of the most likely ways that residents of North America could be exposed to Fukushima derived contamination. Maximum contamination levels in seawater from Fukushima measured in waters offshore and onshore British Columbia and in the Arctic Ocean are well-nigh 8 to 10-fold lower than levels present in the North Pacific during the height of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  These levels are roughly 1000-fold unelevated the maximum mandated drinking water standards for these isotopes.  Levels in marine organisms have not reverted significantly since surpassing the disaster.  As was reported in 2015 in this comprehensive study by Health Canada and backed up by measurements made by the international scientific polity the release of radioisotopes from Fukushima will have no measurable impact on the health of the marine ecosystem in the northeast Pacific nor on public health in North America.   On March 11, 2011 all vision were on Japan and I was watching too and feeling undeniably the loss of life that the earthquake and tsunami brought on the Japanese people. A little later I watched as events at the FDNPP began to unfold and it became well-spoken that a major nuclear wrecking was underway. I wondered what it meant for me and my family and friends in Victoria, BC Canada. I catalogued all the monitoring data coming in in 2011 I could find from the international scientific polity and kept shielding watch on the scientific literature. In 2013 I began communicating with the public well-nigh what the triple meltdowns at the FDNPP meant for the health of our marine ecosystem and public health considering much of the information getting to the public was not scientifically sound, misinformed the public in unstipulated and overestimated the risk to people living in North America. The short of the story then was that nothing in the measurements of air, soil and water suggested any significant risk to public or environmental health.  But it was well-spoken that many in the public were stuff mislead by information online. To write the lack of quality information getting to the public I and other scientists in Canada and the USA, non-Governmental Organizations and resider scientist volunteers put together the InFORM network. This is what we have found so far. Offshore Monitoring of Seawater Contamination The levels of radionuclide contamination in seawater is important to understand as the levels that ultimately are found in marine organisms is set by seawater levels.  InFORM recently published a peer-reviewed paper in Environmental Science and Technology summarizing our results to date. Offshore levels of Fukushima derived isotopes have peaked and are now decreasing at our westernmost stations 1000-1500 kilometers from the North American coast.  The peak levels are well unelevated levels measured in the same waters during the 1950’s and 1960’s when atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were common.  The study zone is shown in the icon unelevated withal with the prevailing currents that brought the contaminated seawater to North America. ​ ​Study zone showing the onshore-offshore sampling line occupied by the InFORM project with the support of Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Station P26 is ~1500 kilometers from the tailspin of North America.   ​Measurements of radiocesium isotopes help scientists determine how much impact Fukushima has had on seawater at any given location on the globe. Off North America levels peaked at well-nigh 10 Bq per cubic meter of seawater (a Bq = Becquerel is one waste of an whit per second).  This peak contamination is well-nigh 10-fold unelevated levels measured here in the middle of the 20th century and 1000-fold unelevated levels unliable in drinking water in Canada. The icon unelevated shows how Fukushima derived contamination arrived in the upper ~400 meters of seawater from June 2013 until August of 2016. ​ ​Progression of Fukushima contamination in the upper 500 meters of seawater over time toward the tailspin of North America withal the Line P times series stations. Data J. Smith (DFO). The tailspin is on the right hand side of the icon with loftiness offshore plotted on the x-axis and depth in the ocean on the y-axis. Red values would indicate seawater with cesium concentrations that exceed drinking water standards. The verisimilitude scheme is on a logarithmic scale.   ​The icon unelevated shows the transpiration in contamination with time and the levels in comparison to historical levels in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. ​ ​Peak levels of contamination from Fukushima in the northeast Pacific at stations P26 (offshore), P16 (intermediate) and P4 (coastal) since 2011 compared with model predictions of Rossi.  Insert shows Fukushima contamination relative to weapons testing fallout. Levels at P26 have peaked and are unthriving reflecting the large releases in the weeks pursuit the meltdown with sustained by much lower releases persisting from that time on.   ​Levels measured now and predicted to victorious withal the tailspin in the future will not tideway levels known to represent a significant risk to the health of marine organisms or human beings. Coastal Monitoring Efforts by InFORMResiderScientists Every month since well-nigh December 2014 volunteer resider scientists in 15 coastal communities up and lanugo the shores of British Columbia have placid seawater samples at the waterfront and returned them to our laboratories for analysis.  The sampling network is shown below. ​Coastal seawater monitoring stations in British Columbia.   Since monitoring began coastal seawater concentrations have increased as the Fukushima contamination plume arrives.  The first detection of Fukushima contamination at the tailspin occurred in Feb. 2015 in the coastal polity of Ucluelet on the west tailspin of Vancouver Island. Since that time levels have increased moderately and likely reflect that fact that the mixing of freshwaters coming from the land with the contaminated oceanic waters tend to insulate the tailspin from higher levels of contamination measured offshore.  At the coastal locations contamination levels of human-made isotopes (which are a very small fraction of the radioactive elements in seawater) have increased 2-4 times relative to the pre-Fukushima levels. ​ ​Levels of radiocesium detected at the tailspin of British Columbia since monitoring began in 2014.  Regional patterns are shown in the second panel with increasingly ocean exposed (west tailspin of Vancouver Island and north tailspin of BC) sites showing increasingly Fukushima derived contamination than sites in the Salish Sea or in sheltered areas of the inside coast.   Our coastal ecosystem and supplies supply are not at risk from these low levels of radioisotope contamination. Monitoring of Pacific Salmon and Other Marine Organisms Since 2014 we have placid and analyzed ~100 Pacific salmon and steel throne trout per year returning to rivers up and lanugo the BC tailspin from the Pacific Ocean.  There has been no statistically significant increase in the levels of human-made isotopes in the fish since surpassing the Fukushima disaster. The dose of ionizing radiation experienced by consumers of Pacific fish and shellfish is still dominated by the presence of naturally occurring radioisotopes in the Uranium and Thorium waste series (principally 210-Polonium) and remains well unelevated levels that might represent a health risk. Our results are summarized in the pursuit two figures. ​ ​Monitoring results for Pacific fish as of September 2017. Approximately 450 fish have been placid over the period 2014-2017. No significant increase in artificial, human made isotopes has been detected.   ​The ionizing dose from consuming these fish is insignificant relative to other sources of ionizing radiation dose experienced by members of the public in North America. No measurable health impacts are expected. ​ ​Dose of ionizing radiation from Fukushima derived isotopes relative to other sources.   Summary Our intensive monitoring of environmental levels of contamination from Fukushima here in North America indicate that there is insignificant risk to ecosystem or public health resulting from the levels of radioisotopes detected in seawater and marine organisms.  A summary of our program results thus far and monitoring of conditions off of Fukushima in Japan are given in the pursuit figure. Consistent with model predictions and the measurements made by scientists virtually the globe, the FDNPP wrecking will not have measurable negative impacts on North America’s marine ecosystems or public health. Levels of contamination are simply too far unelevated those known to represent a threat to wildlife or human health. The InFORM project will protract its monitoring efforts into March 2019 and will protract to report its results and make them misogynist to the public as soon as possible. I am misogynist and happy to wordplay and questions related to the project, its goals and results. As unchangingly on this somber year-end I think well-nigh the incredible loss of life from the tsunami and wish the weightier for the recovery of Japan’s coastal communities. British Columbia,ResiderScience, Location, Sample type, SeawaterResiderScientists Sampling for Fukushima Contamination in Port Renfrew BC (August 2016) November 3, 2016 fukushimainform Leave a scuttlebutt by Jay T. Cullen Last evening I spoke at the monthly meeting of Surfrider Vancouver Island, one of InFORM’s non-governmental organization partners, to provide them with an update on our most recent results and progress.  Surfrider VI helps to coordinate our resider science volunteers who sample coastal seawater every month to monitor for Fukushima derived contamination withal our beaches from Victoria in the south to Lax Kw’alaams in the north of BC.  Surfrider VI is primarily responsible for sampling in Port Renfrew BC which is on the southwest tailspin of Vancouver Island. I was pleasantly surprised by Lynn Wharram (Volunteer Coordinator and Combing theTailspinBCU team lead) who had produced a short video chronicling her family collecting InFORM’s August 2016 seawater sample from the dock near the Port Renfrew Hotel.  You can watch the video below. You can read increasingly well-nigh our resider science program methods here, our NGO partners here , and our resider science volunteers here. Thanks then to our volunteers and to Surfrider VI for all the work they do. Go and trammels them out if you are interested in ocean health (and surfing).   British Columbia, Cesium, Iodine, North America, Peer Reviewed, Xenon The Impact of the Fukushima on Canada: Health Canada Reports December 21, 2015 fukushimainform 4 Comments By Jay T. Cullen The purpose of this post is to bring to the sustentation of interested readers a recently released report that provides comprehensive worth of the environmental radiation surveillance activities conducted by Health Canada in the months immediately pursuit the Fukushima accident.  This report includes an towage of the overall levels of contamination and resulting impacts to the health of Canadians.  Contrary to irresponsible and inaccurate rumors that Health Canada suspended monitoring in the wake of the triple meltdowns, monitoring activities were, in fact, enhanced and expanded to increase the spritz of information and modernize understanding of the implications of the contamination for environmental and public health.  While there was no discernible transpiration in total preliminaries radiation a distributed system of monitoring stations and the rapid hodgepodge and measurement of environmental samples tracked the trace levels of atmospheric contamination wideness the country. The report concludes: inobtrusive estimates of the maximum individual dose from Fukushima was less than 0.0003 (1/ 3,000) of the typical yearly dose for a Canadian owing to natural preliminaries sources the spare dose resulting from Fukushima derived contamination is far less than the normal variation in dose from place to place in Canada there are likely to be no health impacts related to this small, incremental doseProtractreading The Impact of the Fukushima on Canada: Health Canada Reports → 2011Background RadiationChernobylEnvironmental MonitoringFukushima ResponseHealth CanadaSievertWeapons Testing Algae, British Columbia, Cesium, Peer Reviewed Kelp Watch 2015: Most Recent Results Looking for Fukushima Contamination April 12, 2015 fukushimainform 1ScuttlebuttBy Jay T. Cullen The Raincoast Education Society has partnered with the University of Victoria and California State University to siphon out radionuclide sampling of sea water and kelp, respectively, in Clayoquot Sound. http://raincoasteducation.org/radiation-monitoring  The purpose of this post is to report the most recent results of Kelp Watch 2015 , a program defended to monitoring for the presence of Fukushima contamination off our Pacific Coast. This post is the latest in a series defended to the public dissemination of information well-nigh the impacts of the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster on the health of the North Pacific Ocean ecosystem and health of North American residents. New results from the third sampling period (January through March 2015) of Kelp Watch 2015 were released on April 6, 2015 and can be found here. As with previously reported results here, here and here no radioactive isotopes from Fukushima were detected in kelp growing at sampling sites spread withal our Pacific coast. The sparsity of 134Cs in kelp suggests that ocean transport of Fukushima contamination had yet to reach North American coastal water. As the contaminated water reaches the shoreline in the coming months Kelp Watch 2015 will help to track the inrush of the plume in time and space.Protractreading Kelp Watch 2015: Most Recent Results Looking for Fukushima Contamination → 134-Cs137-CsAlgaeBerkelyBioaccumulationCitizen ScienceEnvironmental MonitoringKelpKelpWatchRaincoast EducationTofino Posts navigation 1 2 Next → View Fukushima-InFORM-257383817784613’s profile on FacebookView @FukushimaInFORM’s profile on TwitterView UCRqxVIr3s5Yc-djXahyBunA’s profile on YouTube Recent Posts Voyage Reflections Friday the 13th was the Luckiest Day Ever Into the Storm Advertisements Funded by Blog at WordPress.com. 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