Kurt's Thoughts

I keep hearing about this from friends:  “But isn’t sushi contaminated?  Aren’t we getting poisoned from the radioactive material from the Japanese nuclear reactor leak?”

Answer:  NO.  (Now please stop reading HuffPo.)

• FDA: FDA Response to the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Facility Incident
  ”FDA has no evidence that radionuclides from the Fukushima incident are present in the U.S. food supply at levels that would pose a public health concern. This is true for both FDA-regulated food products imported from Japan and U.S. domestic food products, including seafood caught off the coast of the United States. Consequently, FDA is not advising consumers to alter their consumption of specific foods imported from Japan or domestically produced foods, including seafood. ”
  http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publichealthfocus/ucm247403.htm
• SNOPES: *FALSE* Fukushima Emergency – Image shows radioactive seepage spreading across the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima nuclear plant
  ”…the chart did not actually track or measure radioactive discharge emanating from Fukushima in 2014, or any other aspect of the Fukushima disaster.  It was a plot created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (MOA) immediately after the Tohoku earthquake in March 2011 showing the WAVE HEIGHT of the tsunami that followed.  It had (and has) nothing to do with the flow or spread of radioactive seepage from Fukushima.”
  http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/fukushima.asp
• UT San Diego: Fukushima seafood radiation risk nil, study says
  ”Sushi lovers relax.  There’s virtually no risk of getting fatal cancer from Pacific bluefin tuna exposed to radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.”
  http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jun/03/fukushima-bluefin-tuna-risk/
• National Academy of Sciences: Evaluation of radiation doses and associated risk from the Fukushima nuclear accident to marine biota and human consumers of seafood
  “Such doses are comparable to, or less than, the dose all humans routinely obtain from naturally occurring radionuclides in many food items, medical treatments, air travel, or other background sources.”
  http://www.pnas.org/content/110/26/10670
• The Province: Is it safe to eat the sushi? Answers to your questions about Fukushima radiation
  “Measurable amounts of isotopes from Fukushima have travelled across the Pacific. But you will receive a more substantial dose of radiation during a an airplane flight — from normal cosmic radiation — than swimming off the coast of Tofino.”
  http://www.theprovince.com/news/safe+sushi+Answers+your+questions
  +about+Fukushima+radiation/9401912/story.html