Dr. Cullen spoke with Gregor Craigie of CBC’s On the Island today about the status of the Fukushima disaster and radiation five years after the accident.
Listen to the interview.
Tag Archives: Environmental Monitoring
Update: InFORM Monitoring Results For Pacific Salmon Collected Summer 2015
Measurements undertaken as part of the InFORM project to look for Fukushima derived radionuclides in fish during our second of three years of monitoring are now complete on an additional 156 fish. Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) and Steelhead Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) (as well as some Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) Salmon) were caught off the west coast of Canada in Summer 2015 as they were returning to their home streams and rivers up and down the coast of British Columbia. Samples of fish were obtained with the cooperation and collaboration of the Champagne and Aishihik, ‘Namgis, Nisga’a, Selkirk, Syilix, Tahltan, Taku River Tlingit, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Wet’suwet’en and Wuikinuxv First Nations. These results add to the first ~100 fish collected and analyzed in 2014.
What we have found so far:
- With the exception of 7 fish discussed in point 3 below individual fish were not found to have detectable levels of either 134Cs or 137Cs so average levels were calculated for all fish harvested in a given location.
- Similar to 2014, none of the fish from 2015 analyzed thus far were found to contain detectable levels of 134Cs a man-made radionuclide that serves as a fingerprint of the Fukushima disaster.
- The average level of 137Cs seen in InFORM 2015 fish samples (0.19 Bq kg-1) is similar to the level observed in the 2014 campaign (0.21 Bq kg-1). As with 134Cs, the Fukushima disaster resulted in the release of a large quantity of 137Cs. However, 137Cs, which has a longer half-life, was already present in the Pacific Ocean prior to the Fukushima accident because of the nuclear weapons testing fallout.
- The 137Cs levels observed in the 2015 InFORM samples represent a fraction of the Health Canada guidelines (1000 Bq kg-1) and a fraction of the radiation exposure owing to naturally occurring radionuclides Polonium-210 (210Po) and Potassium-40 (40K) which dominate the ionizing radiation dose to fish consumers.
- While the average 137Cs concentration remained nearly identical from 2014 to 2015, 7 individual fish (out of 156) have shown a detectable level of 137Cs (ranging from 0.27 to 0.60 Bq kg-1) while individual fish from 2014 were below detection limit. Because no 134Cs was detected in these fish it is not possible to say whether detectable 137Cs can be attributed to Fukushima contamination or simply normal variability in contamination owing to nuclear weapons testing fallout.
- What this means is that radioactivity from the Fukushima meltdowns has not been detected in the InFORM fish samples caught in BC waters as of summer 2015.
- Neither the 137Cs present in the fish nor the naturally occurring radioisotopes in fish represent a measurable health risk to consumers in Canada.
Measurements of radioactive elements in these fish and from previous years are available for download at the Government of Canada Open Data website. Continue reading Update: InFORM Monitoring Results For Pacific Salmon Collected Summer 2015
Field Observations Show Decline of Japan’s Intertidal Biota Near Site of the Fukushima Disaster
By Jay T. Cullen
The purpose of this post is to report on a newly published, peer-reviewed study in the open access journal Scientific Reports that uses field observations to determine how intertidal species abundance and diversity were affected by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster. This post is part of an ongoing series dedicated to summarizing the results of scientific studies aimed at understanding the impact of the FDNPP disaster on ecosystem and public health. Horiguchi and colleagues surveyed intertidal marine organisms and made measurements of artificial radionuclides in specimens in 2011, 2012 and 2013. They found that in 2012 the number of intertidal organisms was lower closer to the FDNPP than farther away and that the sea snail (Thais clavigera) was absent from sampling locations <30 km from the FDNPP. Because sea snails were found in other rocky habitats affected by the tsunami in 2011 the absence of these organisms in 2012 near the plant might be related to the FDNPP disaster. In 2013 both the numbers of organisms and diversity of species were found to be lower at sites within several kilometers south of the FDNPP site. While, according to the authors, there is no clear explanation for the findings at present it is clear that the intertidal biota has been impacted close to the FDNPP since the disaster. The authors conclude that:
- it is unlikely that the tsunami was solely responsible for changes in the intertidal communities given the distribution of sea snails
- other causes might include acute or sub-acute toxicities from the largest leaks from the FDNPP site in March-April 2011 containing artificial radionuclides, boric acid and hydrazine (and other chemicals)
- most significant impacts to the intertidal community occurred along the coast south and proximal to FDNPP which likely reflects predominant local water currents
The changes noted by Horiguchi and colleagues in the intertidal community contrast with the lack of significant changes in benthic organisms along the Japanese coast by Sohtome and colleagues that was summarized here.
The Impact of the Fukushima on Canada: Health Canada Reports
By Jay T. Cullen
The purpose of this post is to bring to the attention of interested readers a recently released report that provides comprehensive account of the environmental radiation surveillance activities conducted by Health Canada in the months immediately following the Fukushima accident. This report includes an assessment 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 flow of information and improve understanding of the implications of the contamination for environmental and public health. While there was no discernible change in total background radiation a distributed system of monitoring stations and the rapid collection and measurement of environmental samples tracked the trace levels of atmospheric contamination across the country. The report concludes:
- conservative estimates of the maximum individual dose from Fukushima was less than 0.0003 (1/ 3,000) of the typical annual dose for a Canadian owing to natural background sources
- the additional 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 dose
Continue reading The Impact of the Fukushima on Canada: Health Canada Reports
December 2015 Monitoring Sample Collected in Bamfield BC
By Jay T. Cullen
We are partnered with the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (BMSC) who coordinate our citizen science coastal seawater sampling in the coastal community of Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
I received an email today from BMSC foreshore operations Janice Pierce that the sample was sent out with todays mail from Bamfield and headed to UVic for processing.
The location of Bamfield is indicated on the map below.
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