Live Radiation Monitoring From West LA, Exposure Info

The embedded video below is running live on Ustream from EnviroReporter.com detecting current radiation levels in Santa Monica, California, which is located on the far west side of Los Angeles along the coast.  The monitor is at an elevation of 140 feet and indoors.   It's currently very early here on the morning of Friday, March 18th.  Today is the day that many have estimated that the first radioactive particles will be arriving here, about 11am local time. When viewing the Ustream video below, you might want to click the Mute button to avoid the nasty thirty-second commercial at the beginning.  There's no sound on the stream anyway.

I've been watching the stream for about an hour now on an alternate screen and according to the information posted on EnviroReporter and elsewhere, the levels here so far have been normal.  The readings on the monitor are in Counts Per Minute (CPM).  100 Counts Per Minute equals 1 Millisievert (mSv).  The average CPM have been in the mid-40s and the highest variance I have seen over the hour I've viewed the stream has been 65.  It will be interesting to see if this changes as time goes on, and by how much, if indeed the accidents in Japan are not contained.  For now, there is no need for concern (here).  The concern lies with the potentially worsening conditions in Japan and the time it will take to get things under control, as radiation exposure over time has a cumulative impact on humans and the environment.  I saw a video last night featuring theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, where he stated that if he had the ear of Japan's Prime Minister, he would have told him to have poured cement over the failed reactors by now.  He compared dropping water from helicopters to cool the spent fuel rods to "fighting a forest fire with a squirt gun."

I've posted both the Ustream link and some information on radiation exposure primarily to help spread some facts.  Many of us in the US do not trust the government to give us the honest truth about environmental and health dangers.  It has been made resoundingly clear to many of us that their interests only lie with protecting themselves, the banks and the military industrial complex, particularly over the past ten years.  They were the ones that said that the 9/11 first-responders (as many were dying over the course of nine years) weren't sick and there were no health effects whatsoever from dust or airborne contaminants after the Twin Towers fell.  The same people told us that the levees in New Orleans wouldn't breach and there was no crisis with Hurricane Katrina (as we watched people die on our television screens for days).  The same people also told us to go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico last summer after the BP spill, and that there was no harm to sea life or the foods derived the Gulf.

We know all of that to be complete nonsense, so it stands to reason that we should keep an eye on the effects of nuclear fallout just to be sure, instead of listening to them tell us, as they did yesterday, that there wasn't and won't be any health impact in any US states whatsoever.  How can they make such statements?  A simple, "We're continuing to monitor the situation" would suffice.  It may well be the case that the US faces no danger and let's hope that turns out to be true, but the powers that be have violated our trust too many times to just take their word for it.  It's important to note when viewing the information below that the long-term time of exposure at particular levels is key, as many types of cancers will take several years to develop if exposed consistently to mid-levels of radiation.  Currently we are nowhere near those types of levels, thank the universe.

Streaming .TV shows by Ustream

Here is a link to a report on EnviroReporter called Melt Down Wind.  There is also another website with regularly updated US radiation levels called Radiation Network.  Yesterday, the New York Times published a animated motion graphic showing the expected motion of the radioactive plume based on wind and weather patterns.  A sobering video was also posted on YouTube the other day as well showing the earthquake swarm in Japan from March 9th - 14th alone.  Keep in mind that there was increased activity there well before that time and has been since.  They have been getting literally rocked over there.  Below are some facts about radiation levels sourced from Andy Heather and Wikipedia, provided for perspective. 


Radiation Exposure Information

Note that 100 CPM is equivalent to 1 microsievert per hour, or 0.001 millisieverts per hour.  The peak on March 16 of around 50 CPM was equivalent to around 0.5 microsieverts per hour. 250000 microsieverts is considered a harmful dose at which one would experience a temporary drop in white blood cell count.

• To be exposed to 250000 microsieverts of radiation you would have to stay in Tokyo for 57.03 years at peak exposure.

• The math: 0.5 (hourly dose of microsieverts) X 8766 (approximate number of hours in a year) = 4383 (yearly dose of microsieverts at March 16 peak level)

• 250000 (harmful dose of microsieverts) ÷ 4383 (yearly dose of microsieverts at March 16 peak level) = 57.03 (years)


Annual Exposure at Peak Levels

• 8766 (hours per year) X 0.5 (microsieverts per hour at peak on March 16) = 4383 (microsieverts per year)

• Annual average natural exposure per year = 2500 microsieverts per year

• CT scan = 6900 microsieverts

Remember that current radiation readings in Tokyo have now fallen to well below the March 16 peak of 0.5 microsieverts per hour.


Annual Exposure at Current Levels

• 8766 x 0.2 (microsieverts per hour) = 1753 (microsieverts per year)

• Annual average natural exposure per year worldwide:  2500 microsieverts per year

• Average average natural exposure per year in America:  3000 microsieverts per year

• Chernobyl lifetime radiation exposure:  350000 microsieverts

This means that the background radiation in Tokyo is now, at a yearly rate, below the worldwide average.  It is also below the background radiation the average American is exposed to each year.


Single Dose Examples

• Eating one banana: 0.0001 millisieverts/0.1 microsieverts

• Dental radiography: 0.005 millisieverts/5 microsieverts

• Mammogram: 3 millisieverts/3000 microsieverts

• Brain CT scan: 0.8–5 millisieverts/800-5000 microsieverts

• Chest CT scan: 6–18 millisieverts/6000-18000 microsieverts

• Gastrointestinal series X-ray investigation: 14 millisieverts/14000 microsieverts

• Hourly Dose Examples

• Highest recorded radiation at reactor 2, Fukushima I: 8.2 millisieverts/8200 microsieverts

• Highest recorded radiation at Fukushima I: 400 millisieverts/400,000 microsieverts


Yearly Dose Examples

• Living near a nuclear power station: less than 0.01 millisieverts per year/10 microsieverts per year

• Cosmic radiation (from sky) at sea level: 0.24 millisieverts per year/240 microsieverts per year

• Terrestrial radiation (from ground): 0.28 millisieverts per year/280 microsieverts per year

• Natural radiation in the human body: 0.40 millisieverts per year/400 microsieverts per year

• Typical individual's natural background radiation: 1.5 millisieverts per year/1500 microsieverts per year for Australians, 3 millisieverts per year/3000 microsieverts for Americans

• Radon in the average US home: 2 millisieverts per year/2000 microsieverts per year

• Average American's total radiation exposure: 6.2 millisieverts per year/6200 microsieverts per year

• New York-Tokyo flights for airline crew: 9 millisieverts per year/9000 microsieverts per year

• Smoking 1.5 packs/day: 13 millisieverts per year/13000 microsieverts per year

• Current average limit for nuclear workers: 20 millisieverts per year/20000 microsieverts per year

• Background radiation in parts of Iran, India and Europe: 50 millisieverts per year/50000 microsieverts per year

• Lowest clearly carcinogenic level: 100 millisieverts per year/100000 microsieverts per year

• Criterion for relocation after Chernobyl disaster: 350 millisieverts per lifetime/350000 microsieverts per lifetime


Effects to humans of acute radiation (within one day):

• 0–0.25 Sieverts: None

• 0.25–1 Sieverts: Some people feel nausea and loss of appetite; bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen damaged.

• 1–3 Sieverts: Mild to severe nausea, loss of appetite, infection; more severe bone marrow, lymph node, spleen damage; recovery probable, not assured.

• 3–6 Sieverts: Severe nausea, loss of appetite; hemorrhaging, infection, diarrhea, skin peels, sterility; death if untreated.

• 6–10 Sieverts: Above symptoms plus central nervous system impairment; death expected.

• Above 10 Sieverts: Incapacitation and death.

So for now, things are okay on the US west coast.  I continue to keep the people of Japan in my thoughts and prayers and I hope that many around the world will join in support and donate to the disaster effort if possible.  The post-quake damage there is tremendous and they need our help, as it will be with them for some time to come.  We are one.

On a lighter note, I will provide a link to the beautiful rainbow cloud that appeared over Mt. Everest recently.  It made me think of a 2009 video from José Arguelles called "2012 Circumpolar Rainbow Bridge," in which he talks about an increase in rainbow cloud formations as we move closer to 2012.   I have seen people posting similar photos recently on some consciousness-related websites, but none as beautiful as the one in the article linked above.  Could they really be signs of something beautiful to come?  I would hope so, but it's only hope at this point.  Below is the video in two parts.

~ Part 1 ~

~ Part 2 ~

And finally, for some additional perspective on the mainstream, corporate controlled media here in the US, I found this video, embedded below, from RT America to be quite interesting.  I viewed it very early this morning, Friday, March 18th.  As usual, I did a Google search for the headline to see where else the story appeared on the web.  I was surprised to find that within the first 50 search results, there was no mention of this story on any of the domestic major media outlets.  None of them appeared to have covered the story, not Fox, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, CBS, ABC, Reuters, Associated Press, etc.  Upon sharing the video with some friends, one mentioned that Google has been censoring news for some time.  That may indeed be the case, and many times I'll cross-check a search through IxQuick or another alternative search engine, but even so, I found it surprising that there was no mention of this whatsoever.  That may obviously change as time goes on, but as of Friday morning, nothing.

In addition to RT, the sites that did have the story mentioned were all independent media outlets and blogs.  One has to wonder about the issue currently being debated in Washington called Net Neutrality, where the large telecommunications companies who control access to and connection speeds of the internet domestically want to "redesign" the internet to suit their own twisted agendas.  That's not a world that most of us who use the web for information and communication want to live in.  They've already ruined cable TV, where they've "bundled" everything to the point that you have to pay for things you don't want.  In virtually no other area of commerce are purchases set up that way.  It would be like going to the market to buy some fruits and vegetables, let's say lettuce, peppers, oranges and bananas, and the market telling you, "Fine.  But you'll have to buy 10 bags of wet sand mixed with dead animal carcasses along with your fruit and vegetable purchases as well, or you'll get nothing."  Most of what one pays for in a bundle is useless, unwanted tripe.  It's a con game and it makes no sense for the consumer.  Major media executives push this agenda on the public while virtually masturbating about "the free market," competition and how well they serve the consumer.  Lies.

The large media companies are looking to "bundle" access to websites on top of the monthly connection fees, i.e., "Your current monthly fees, plus an additional $19.95 per month and you'll get "unlimited" high-speed access to your email, YouTube, Facebook, iTunes and three more (approved corporate) websites of your choice."  They want to silence independent media and bloggers by providing high-speed access to benefit only corporate websites.  In many parts of this country, you can't even pay for RT or Al Jazeera on a cable television plan.  They won't even carry the channels.  When you consider who now owns cable television, thus having a virtual monopoly on internet connection, it's not surprising.  AT&T has already commenced their new bandwidth cap strategy.  These companies are like cancers whose appetite for profit and control is insatiable.  It's a game of inches with them, and despite claims of "it will only affect a minor portion of our customers," there's a plan there.  That's how it always starts and these strategies are designed to get them firm footing upon which they can further slice up and divide web access, and raise prices at will.

Back to events yesterday in Washington, DC.  Although the protest in the video below isn't massive by any means, it is significant given the location and the various recent anti-government protests that have been taking place around the country, especially in Wisconsin, where some of these demonstrators in the video had come from.  There was a time in this country, not too long ago when we actually had real news reporters who would have considered this story a real scoop, primarily because it could be part of a growing trend and portend things to come.  Things are changing in the country and changing fast.  Lately it seems to be a country run by and for the major corporations, many of whom do not pay any taxes.

~ Namaste ~