Alberta student’s science project finds high radiation levels in grocery-store seafood

[key2thecup]

Alberta student’s science project finds high radiation levels in grocery-store seafood

Alberta high-school student Bronwyn Delacruz loves sushi, but became concerned last summer after learning how little food inspection actually takes place on some of its key ingredients.

The Grade 10 student from Grande Prairie said she was shocked to discover that, in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stopped testing imported foods for radiation in 2012.

So, she decided to carry out her own tests.

Armed with a $600 Geiger counter bought by her dad, Delacruz studied a variety of seafoods – particularly seaweeds – as part of an award-winning science project that she will take to a national fair next month.

“Some of the kelp that I found was higher than what the International Atomic Energy Agency sets as radioactive contamination, which is 1,450 counts over a 10-minute period,” she said. “Some of my samples came up as 1,700 or 1,800.”

Delacruz said the samples that “lit up” the most were products from China that she bought in local grocery stores.

Her results caught the attention of judges at the Peace River Regional Science Fair, who moved her project along to the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Windsor, Ont., in May.

Delacruz also hopes to catch the attention of lawmakers in Ottawa with a petition urging the federal government to do more radiation testing on food.

The CFIA states online that it “continues to monitor events in Japan” but has no immediate plans to resume regular radiation testing, noting “Japanese controls on the sale of contaminated product remain intact.”

The agency did extensive testing on a variety of foods for a year and a half after the nuclear disaster in Japan but found no cause for concern at that time.

“More than 200 food samples were tested and all were found to be below Health Canada’s actionable levels for radioactivity,” the CFIA states in a February 2014 posting on its website. “As such, enhanced import controls have been lifted and no additional testing is planned.”

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/982233/alberta-students-science-project-finds-high-radiation-levels-in-grocery-store-seafood/

No radiation in fish tested: Health Canada

http://www.nsnews.com/news/no-radiation-in-fish-tested-health-canada-1.870612

[Aladeen]

[Where's Wellwood]

This isn't surprising in the slightest. What is, and should be the focus is that the govt stopped using things for radiation.

[Kryten]

Problem solved.

[CB007]

Stick with Atlantic seafood.

[Mr.DirtyDangles]

I'd wait for a properly conducted randomized experiment instead of relying on a grade 10er's data but maybe this a good start to get there.

I have friends in Van and Calgary that own Geiger counters and have tested a multitude of objects including food and the results are alarming ! They have been conducting tests before and after rain and those results would scare the sh.. out of everyone. The amount of Radiation spilling into the ocean and atmosphere from Fukishima is exponential.

[Nosferatu.]

Blame the Ukraine and Japan.

[Mr.DirtyDangles]

Blame the Ukraine and Japan.

[Dazzle]

I have friends in Van and Calgary that own Geiger counters and have tested a multitude of objects including food and the results are alarming ! They have been conducting tests before and after rain and those results would scare the sh.. out of everyone. The amount of Radiation spilling into the ocean and atmosphere from Fukishima is exponential.

[butters]

I have friends in Van and Calgary that own Geiger counters and have tested a multitude of objects including food and the results are alarming ! They have been conducting tests before and after rain and those results would scare the sh.. out of everyone. The amount of Radiation spilling into the ocean and atmosphere from Fukishima is exponential.

[Aladeen]

I'd wait for a properly conducted randomized experiment instead of relying on a grade 10er's data but maybe this a good start to get there.

Yup but I still wouldn't want to eat the food she was testing

[-SN-]

I have friends in Van and Calgary that own Geiger counters and have tested a multitude of objects including food and the results are alarming ! They have been conducting tests before and after rain and those results would scare the sh.. out of everyone. The amount of Radiation spilling into the ocean and atmosphere from Fukishima is exponential.

I don't think that's the word you're looking for.

[Lancaster]

Seems kinda fishy (pardon the pun).

Most tuna I get at usually from the Atlantic. Salmon are from BC.

I dunno where the "import" from Japan is from.

[TheRussianRocket.]

I have friends in Van and Calgary that own Geiger counters and have tested a multitude of objects including food and the results are alarming ! They have been conducting tests before and after rain and those results would scare the sh.. out of everyone. The amount of Radiation spilling into the ocean and atmosphere from Fukishima is exponential.

[avelanch]

GUYS.... it's exponential!

[BanTSN]

We're dead.

[canuck2xtreme]

I've heard about radiation in our fish supplies. I don't have the means or the know-how to properly measure the radiation levels. What I want to know is: Why is the government stopping radiation checking? They either don't think it's an issue or that they haven't looked far enough.

When you're the controlling government of a huge population and have a massive problem you have no immediate solution to and have no idea how to fix in the short or long term, it's best to convince the masses that there is no problem at all.

[Mainly Mattias]

the second article was much more informative.

Problem solved.

what's that?

[Maginator]

rip world 2030

this is no surprise to me…. anything to make more of us die….

[Kryten]

what's that?

It's a fictitious item from a game called Fallout. Hopefully this girl can turn it into a reality and win the science fair again next year.