Trust But Verify: Show Us The Numbers If the Radiation Levels are Safe

Reports from Reuters and the Associated Press indicate that radiation from Japan nuclear facilities has reached the US West coast, but that radiation is “minuscule” and contains “very low” levels.

While we want to believe that the recent panic over Potassium Iodide has been overblown, we have yet to see any official radiation numbers from the US government. It is clear that radiation in the fallout area around the nuclear reactors at Fukushima is dangerous and high enough to kill those in the direct vicinity of the meltdown. What’s not clear is how much radiation is being released at ground zero, and how that radiation has dissipated as it spreads out in Japan and across the Pacific on its way to the west coast of North America.

According to the United Nations’ official radiation fallout forecast, radiation that does reach the US west coast will be “diluted”.

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Ideally, it would be of interest to the American people if we were able assess for ourselves what “diluted” actually means, considering we don’t know exactly how much radiation originated at the source. Certainly, levels will dilute as the cloud spreads across thousands of miles of ocean, but not knowing how much radiation was released in the first place makes it impossible to determine how much will reach us, even if the original levels are diluted.

If the situation is dire enough for the US Surgeon General to advise the populace to get a hold of KI as a preventative measure, then providing the public with a way of checking West coast radiation levels in real-time, through official sources, is a no-brainer.

Japan is obviously doing whatever it can to minimize the impact the disaster has had on their economy and overall global perception, but it’s becoming clear that it is very serious, and millions in the region could be affected. At this point, a week after the Tsunami hit Japan, we still don’t know what is really going on. Has the meltdown been averted? Are radiation levels in Japan dropping? Is there a possibility that things will get worse? No one knows, because nobody, including the US government, is talking.

Tens of millions of Americans, especially on the West coast, are looking for guidance from our trusted officials. The President of the United States has done nothing to ease the concerns of panicked citizens. In fact, it seems that there is nothing to be concerned about, as the President has chosen to vacation in Rio for a few days while all of this blows over – pun intended.

As Americans, we should not have to depend on the government of Japan or the IAEA to disseminate information about dangers to America. This is the job of domestic agencies like FEMA and the Office of the President of the United States. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose agency is supposed to be responsible for dealing with scenarios exactly like this one, has been silent. It seems that DHS is capable of dealing only with manufactured dangers, like patting down children after they disembark from trains, because this is where the real threat is. Nuclear radiation crossing the Pacific, potentially sickening and killing millions of US citizens and radiating the Northern California agricultural centers – not that big a deal.

The radiation reaching US shores today reportedly originated at the onset of the crisis last weekend. According to alternative news reports (because the mainstream has ignored accurate reporting thus far), the radiation cloud will persist for several days, until the situation in Japan is completely stabilized. The real problems did not develop in Japan until earlier in the week, suggesting that whatever “minuscule” radiation is currently hitting the West coast, it is just a prelude of more to come.

We urge those in potentially affected areas to maintain calm, and to not ingest any Potassium Iodide they may have in their possession, as this should only be used as a last resort once confirmation of high levels of nuclear fallout have been confirmed.

For the time being, we can rely only on private sector sources for radiation numbers, as our government refuses to provide any meaningful information on the situation.

Online resources include the Radiation Network, which has independent monitoring stations set up around the country, as well as alternative news web sites such as The Intel Hub, Jeff Rense, Steve Quayle, Alex Jones, and SHTFplan who have been providing links and news reports on the crisis since it began.