I have been in contact with a person In New Zealand who just sent me information of a detection of a high level radiation cloud passing over Dunedin New Zealand. You will find a copy of his email correspondence below. This chart is the recorded background radiation level during this event. Visual observation saw peaks reach an incredible 1.89 uS/Hr !
"Dear Peter,
Now that I have regained my composure, I thought I would write. It has been a wild afternoon! I shall write you a report upon what was observed later, if you wish to publish it, you can. Feel free to include those images on your website.

Gammascout detection of radiation cloud .81uS/Hr Dunedin New Zealand 29th January 2012
The steady-ish readings of 0.81 (photo) were taken when I came in off the street. It was briefly reading 1.89 on the street in the wind. I decided to come inside asap to the back yard, and then left the GS sitting outside for a while (0.25 photo) - checking on it. I'm in a relatively sheltered section. There was no way I was going to stand in ~2 microSieverts per hour in the wind!! No detectable radiation on me as such, it appears to be in the air. I can only speculate as to what it is. To be honest, it scared the cap out of me!
I remember waste drums putting out 1.2 micros per hour ... but almost 2 in the wind - well?! You don't stand in that and wait around. So far, I've kept it relatively quiet from the press, and shall continue to monitor - as we have a rain front system approaching from the South. I'm not sure how to handle this, as I wish to maintain a very very low profile.
It is clear, that both ARPANSA and NRL are intentionally playing dumb. That said, it is probably best that I feed information to you, and it can be used at your end effectively. I'm now set up with camera and logging everything on 1 minute sampling (in case the data fouls on transfer and also that a photographed reading says more than a data point)"
Here is his follow up report.
"Hello Peter!
Please find the following notes.
Notes re yesterday:
On Sunday 29/1/2012 at 13:30 local time an increase in radiation inside was noted. This was investigated, and found to be emanating from the atmosphere itself. Wind conditions were gusting to strong from the NW direction at the time. Standing in the street, a peak climbing rate of 1.89 microSieverts/hr was noted (the observer did not remain to see how high it would go, as it was considered unwise to do so).
The Gammascout was reset to collect data (as its memory was full), and the sampling window set to 1 minute. Several excursions were made outside to investigate the conditions, and the results can be seen in photographs and in the logs supplied. These were recorded in a sheltered 'back yard'. These logs did not record the peak events see earlier, unfortunately.
From 16:51 events were recorded inside. The Gammascout memory was downloaded when it was full. Outside natural background average is 0.10-0.12 micro Sv/hr, inside average ranges from 0.15-0.18 microSv/hr.
Further monitoring will take place in conditions when the wind direction is from the Tasman Sea. Further photographs await processing on 35 mm film."
Another radiation cloud, this time a massive 4.5 uS/Hr passing over Dunedin New Zealand 1st February 2012, around 1 to 2am in the morning, during a rain event!
" The GS unit wasn't set properly after the first recorded spike. Hence, the uncorrected date data was published. The time is correct, for the date specified ... it was never envisioned that fallout would be here, and the date was never correctly set after its last service.
The missing patch between the logs is the down time for the GS uni switching from 1 minute to 7 day logging as the memory fills.
Average 24 hours is 0.14 ... climbing to 0.23/0.24 and higher for these events ... and lasting for a while post ... dropping to 0.14 from 0.23 ... inside.
The dip after the heavy counts is really curious, and has been seen with several GS units. There is not explanation ... none. But it is real ... the ocean/beach rate here is 0.03 to 0.05 micro/hr ... land is a bit warmer.
The evening that it occurred coincided with a heavy brief downpour .... when the rain stopped, so did the radiation. The drops were really large, and weird ... also, there had been fallout previous to the unit being reset - you can see the earlier blips. Some of the earlier zeros are from guests playing with the unit resetting it. These were recorded inside - outside would have been hotter. You can see the different spikes as the gs unit was moved to the window ... the window was slammed shut ... and there is 2 feet of brink and mortar in this place! Solid as!!
We have had a smaller event her recently also with the rain ... as the ground dries up, it does as well. Background stays elevated for a bit ... then it disperses. Short half life and mobile. Either or, in the rain, or free in the wind ... with small amounts of residue ... "
Here is the location of Dunedin. It is on the south island of New Zealand, what I considered to be one of the safest places on the planet, if a Nuclear disaster like Fukushima happened. So what is going on?
Latest potrblog video provides a good explanation of what is happening with the jet stream air currents at present. A split in the jet stream has occurred which is driving some of the Fukushima fallout radiation into the Southern Hemisphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQPIRDGFOTM&feature=player_embedded
Other related Articles
How governments can arbitrarily raise so called radiation safety levels. No increase is safe!
https://sccc.org.au/archives/428
Radiation Cloud detected over Australia 8th January 2012
https://sccc.org.au/archives/2490
Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site, without further research. Views expressed in the pages or images on the SCCC Inc., site maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.
Hi, I have really been interested in radiation. I'm thirteen and I would like to know more? I would like to take water samples and air samples here in Christchurch but I don't have a detector. Can any one give me some advice on where to buy a cheap good detector thanks 🙂
Hello Fergus!
If you are after value for money, I would suggest a simple DIY Geiger counter from here: https://sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/
Get the kit with the microprocessor included, and you can then log directly to a PC with the addition of an FTDI board (download driver from internet) which are found on Ebay – along with the Geiger tubes needed to attach to make the project to work.
Once soldered up, working and voltage calibrated, you can hook a tube onto it, and then log with an RS232 logger you will be all set to take measurements. Most serious Geiger kits are outside the range of most teenagers – but don't let that stop you …
Did you know that since september last year, there have been over 650 (including major international banking) CEOs resign for differing reasons? Maybe they know something and are keeping it all secret! I mean if there was impending global radiation catastrophe, and you had the power and no morals, then you wouldnt want everyone panicking and causing chaos, taking your precious resources etc.
Jasmine,I would go to your local airport and the terminal that your daughter would be flying from and watch and learn how it operates. Is there a line with the old metal detector only? If so, try to get in that line. Different times of day, busy or not busy, will also have the Agents following different protocol. If they usher her to a naked body scanner, which would irradiate her, then I would have her opt out of that. They would then say that she needs a pat down and would call a lady over to pat her down. Every TSA Agent is a little different in how they pat down their “customers.” I would have your daughter then respectfully ask that the TSA Agent “not touch me, here, and here” and be specific as to what she really means. If the TSA Agent says that she will pat her down as instructed, then I would opt out of the flight, talk to your airline, get a different flight at a different time with a different group of TSA Agents and try again later. The key is not being willing to trade flying for being irradiated or molested.
The strontium and plutonium will kill you.At your supermarket.
The GNS science guy is an idiot. There is an organisation that tracks nuclear events around the world.
From the this link http://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/the-11-march-japan-disaster/?Fsize=yyeojlifzwieup
Nine days after the accident, the radioactive cloud had crossed Northern America. Three days later when a station in Iceland picked up radioactive materials, it was clear that the cloud had reached Europe. By day 15, traces from the accident in Fukushima were detectable all across the northern hemisphere. For the first four weeks, the radioactive materials remained confined to the northern hemisphere, with the equator initially acting as a dividing line between the northern and southern air masses. As of 13 April, radioactivity had spread to the southern hemisphere of the Asia-Pacific region and had been detected at stations located for example in Australia, Fiji, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.
link correction:
http://www.ctbto.org/press-centre/highlights/2011/fukushima-related-measurements-by-the-ctbto/fukushima-related-measurements-by-the-ctbto-page-1/
You have so got that right.
Why can’t people here find out what he NZ government measured? Why is it secret? They are hiding the facts that large amounts of radiation are here. What about our kids?
Well, my friend, your problem is due to cosmic source or gamma radiation. Your Gammascout is shown in the picture with its thickest aluminum plate blocking the GM tube aperture. Therefore you are only registering gamma. You are not registering alpha from Fukushima, impossible as shown. If you are concerned about Fukushima radiation reaching you, I would not be as NZ is very isolated with alot of negative ionization over the oceans precipitating hot particles out. The commenter above, about solar activity, is mostly correct. Caveat is that even if radiation is from a natural source, it is still harmful. Exposures like you are seeing are brief and long linear energy density, similar to riding in a jetplane at high altitude, and at under 2 microsievert much less harmful than getting some hot particles inside you from metal fumes off melted fuel rods. Also not as high a reading as in Japan or some rainouts in the US. I have owned a Gammascout five years and seen it detect airborn DU contamination. It does the job.
It is just a Geiger tube and it is called a gamma scout for that reason.
People are detecting hot things everywhere.
They are being observed by many people, but not many make it public for fear of attention, ridicule and political fallout. They are not related to geo magnetic storms. I talked to an atmospheric physicist and he says that such events are impossible for generating this type of radiation. These are ground related fallout phenomena.
http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2012/01/michigan-fried-with-fukajima-radiation/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI10eqeXBBM this vid outlines how solar flares interract with fallout and produce RADIATION – it just so happens that parts of Europe and Australia and NZ were in the daylight hours when that last flare hit…just sayn PEACE
Hello from Manila ! We have been working in the Philippines for Many years and of course, very concerned when Fukushima blew up! Such a tragedy of unending proportions!
We have tried to follow the radiation damage worldwide, esp to the US and Europe where we have kids and grandest kids… We have been rather unsuccessful trying to chart fallout over the Philippines. Perhaps you could help us with that? We would really like to know the reality of the spread of radiation..esp the upper island of Luzon. Our Radiation testing center here is useless.
There are many problems w 3rd world countries such as the Philippines accepting \’radiated\’ industrial and food imports. A little \’lagay/under the table\’ and it\’s in here! I have been wanting a good meter that will check food as well as air…
All that to say – perhaps you could help us out here as we try to figure out what the past months have held and how to track the radiation in the present.
Many thanks for your good work and all those who comment!
Blessings, THe D\’s
Peter – I live in So Cal and I always check the jet stream when I know a rainstorm is coming. I suggest you do the same. It sucks that a nuclear-free country is getting nuked by the stupidity of the rest of the world. )And I remember the end of the book On the Beach, when radiation was finally making its way from the northern to the southern hemispheres. Scared me when I was a teenager and read it the first time; still scares me.) Be safe, be well! — Libbe, “Auntie Nuke.”
and a p.s. – I produce/host a weekly podcast, Nuclear Hotseat. I’ll be featuring your story next week. If you wish to send an update, do so through the Nuclear Hotseat group page on Facebook. You can subscribe on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nuclear-hotseat-hosted-by/id458213762 or download weekly links from Facebook or http://www.NuclearHotseat.com. News items always welcomed.
Past the pressure Equator
Bit disappointed with On The Beach
Dr Helen Caldicott
But yeah
It did eventually find it’s way past the P Equator
Peter I’m very interested in this as have confirmation from separate source (who I believe knows your source and I will request he past on the same info/question).
I ran his figures past NRL last week while investigating the Rena and NRL acted dumb. This does not surprise me as I had dealing with them over tatulum spill at Otago and when investigating a malfunctioning RTG in Antarctica (the second such accident of its kind in three decades the first being the infamous nukey pooh) and subsequent waste brought back by the MV Greenwave circa 1991. This in addition to heap of material I have collected for a book Too Hot Too Handle; NZ & The Nuclear Free Fiction which has been shelved for the moment but increasing yammering at me from its draw. So it might be good time to take it out and update.
Obvious Fushima is one potential area and likely with recent radiation clouds in Brisbane, but there is still the Rena where NRL acted dumb and MNZ pretty much lied their asses off and then kept changing their story every time obvious flaws was pointed out to them visa their auditing of cargo content.
Another source could be A: the fore-mentioned Antarctic RTG’s which is nukey pooh was any indicator can take a long time to dismantle if fully ruptured (constant with spike in evac out of the ice since 2000)
B: Phobos reportedly this was not RTG powered which however be very unusual for sat elite of this kind and when US lost similar bird in 60’s over same region NRL records showed NZ was hardest hit. We got off lucky Congressional studies showed when considering launch of TIMBERWIND from Vandenburg Airforce base over NZ had the launch proceeded and gone wrong global casualties from radiation from rocket that size were about 5 billion more than half earths population
Another key question which help id source what sort of radiation are we dealing C137, Radium, Plutonium.
Ben, can you please contact us? I am just starting these questions and going thorugh probably the same thing you already have, so I’d just like to know more about what you think. Cheers.
Just FYI all the properly peer rweeievd published work done since at least 1997 shows elevated backgrounds up to around 100mSv pa to improve health and reduce cancer rates, which increase with reducing radiation below 100mSv pa and also increase from that rough level. That’s 11.4 microSV/h optimum . Lots of well rweeievd literature from high natural backgrounds, elevated Radon levels in building, radiaoctive appartment blocks and radiation workers, Check our Dr Bernard Cohen’s early work on Radon which set out to show the improvements removng Radon from basements and found the opposite effect , a video of his presentation from back then is on You Tube.. Problem is the regulators have not caught up with the science, which produced these unexpected results which mean the whoe regulatory framework requires serious review to avoid massive human cost and inconvenience quite avoidably. (The results are not a philospohical surprise if you consider we evolved on a radioactive planet powered by an unshielded nuclear fusion device and are ourseleves noticeably radioactive as part of being human. The natural hypothesis are we evolved to work best with a certain level of radiation, too much is bad, getting it too fast is worse, much too fast lethal, and too little is bad. Just like Sunlight in fact.)The LNT hypothesis was disproved in 1997, no radiation is bad, some is good, too much is bad again. Its called Hormesis and applies to electromagnetic radiation (Sunlight), and many poisons as well. Don’t function so well or at all without them. Safe radiation levels are much higher than was guessed at with some artificial nuclear weapon fear politics thrown in when no one knew. We do now.100,000 pregnacies were terminated in E Europe after Chernobyl because of ingorance of the effects of low level radiation on the foetus. Avoidably. Through ignorant advice. Such avoidable effects of irrational fear are inexcusable now we know better. Reply
This does not take into account the 1,000 or more dangerous radioactive isotopes released during the nuclear meltdown of a nuclear reactor.
The real danger is bio-accumulation and ingestion of these dangerous isotopes via air, water and food. Ingested radiation from the contaminated air, water and food radiates body cells with high doses of radiation for long periods of time. Once ingested you can’t get away from it. It is far more dangerous than what a person is subjected to, from elevated background.
The cells next to these ingested radioactive isotopes are subject to large doses of radiation. Each isotope will be drawn to different parts of the body depending on its chemical affinity. This means a much more shortened life for the men, women and children who ingest this type of internal radioactive contamination.
Everyone is biologically different. Children, and fetuses in a mother’s womb, are much more sensitive to increases in radiation than adults because their cells are dividing much more quickly, and they don’t have well developed immune systems.
As a sub group, young girls are 5 times more sensitive that young boys.
Ben………….you mentioned PM-3A (Nukey Poo) I would be very interested to know what you know about this power plant, have some questions I’d like to ask you.
Please e-mail me, and I will make contact,
Cheers,
Pam
Interesting we received similar info while investigating Rena Fukashima sems most likely however as Aussie also got hit by radiation clouds recently.
Very interesting. Will share this.
seeing as they are also Burning the radiated waste in Japan along with what went up and whats continuing to be emitted, it;s hardly surprising is it?
and for wind patterns the nuke crud hit Usa pretty soon after and went down the coastline to sth america.
an easy example of flows was shown by the sth american volcanic ash reached NZ and aus in the wind pretty soon,,,the rad follows the same trajectory.
When was that particular survey instrument previously recalibrated & source-checked?
The Gammascout that detected the Australian radiation cloud was certified a few months ago. There is a link to that article on Australian radiation cloud detected on the 8th January 2012 at the bottom of the page.
I would like to point out that amongst the comment post here, “Juzzie Be” has an Interesting statement.
“Radex geiger counter several months back while at the beach in northern nsw – 1.22usv/hr – it was still going up when I decided to run.”
It would seem that we are getting the same message from different sources! All these separated and different model Geiger counters are detecting radiation fallout!
Thanks for posting this iirsteetnng conversation.One suggestion: A very human approach to radiation can be used by citing the life of Jimmy Carter. Carter is from a family so genetically susceptible to pancreatic cancer that his parents and all his siblings died of it. Carter is 86, and very visibly healthy. Everybody knows everything about the health of ex-presidents and presidents, so people know you are not lying about Carter’s health or his family’s genetric predisposition. [QUOTE]1952 (Dec 12) Explosion and meltdown at NRX reactor Chalk River, Ontario, Canada. Future U.S. president Jimmy Carter, thru his involvement in the US Nuclear Submarine program, is one of the volunteer workers who participates in the cleanup, going in until he receives his Maximum Permissible Dose.[/QUOTE]This quote is from one of those Greenpeace lists of everything that ever went wrong in any nuclear facility anywhere. And so is this one:And that the limit for radiation workers at that time was:[QUOTE]1949 NCRP lowers basic Maximum Permissible Dose for radiation workers to 0.3 rem/week; risk-benefit philosophy introduced; limits for the general public set at 10% of the occupational limit.[/QUOTE]Jimmy was there for quite a few weeks, receiving more than today’s yearly allowed dose weekly. Afterwards, he discribes in his book Why Not The Best that his urine was radioactive for 6 months. Jimmy’s daughter Amy was born long after that in 1967, and is completely normal. The only long term health problem he has had that anyone knows about is hemorrhoids. He has not had cancer. An equally telling human linkage can be made to the doses given people in radiation therapy.
These radiation spikes are normal and due to activity on the Sun which has been fairly active recently.These levels are harmless and have happening for millions of years.
See website http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SWN/index.html
Has someone lost a military nuclear
submarine in a tragically violent end?!
THAT might, just might, explain it!
i saw this over at rense.
http://rense.com/general95/haarp1.html
http://news.msn.co.nz/article/8230408/radiation-reaches-us-and-uk-but-new-zealand-not-under-threat
“GNS Science senior scientist Bernard Barry told the New Zealand Herald even if the partial breakdown of the reactors worsened, particles would not travel deep into the southern hemisphere.
No matter what level nuclear particles reached within the atmosphere, a “barrier” at the equator prevents the transfer of most northern weather into our territory, he said.”
Tui – Yeah Right!
What an abosolute load of crap. The meltdowns have breached the reactor buildings. Who cares what the hell the temperature is “in the reactors”… The pool of molten metal that’s cruising through the Earth’s crust, THAT’S what is of concern now. NOT what the temperature is where it used to be. WTF!
Could it be a present from Lucas Heights?
http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/an-example-of-an-official-report-of-radio-xenon-releases-from-the-lucas-heights-reactor/
http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/arpansa-responds-to-a-citizens-detection-of-a-radiation-spike-in-queensland-january-2012/
was it from a passing nuclear sub letting off steam, or maybe some kind of problem at the Narangbar food irradiation plant, or Lucas Heights!
I find these spike reports very disturbing so I’m trying to find answers that don’t involve Fukushima, after all, fallout can’t travel that far that quickly and still be that potent. Can it? I got a very high reading on my Radex geiger counter several months back while at the beach in northern nsw – 1.22usv/hr – it was still going up when I decided to run . I had my 4yo daughter with me……. I’d rather not think about that…… funny thing was, the beaches to the north and south showed no sign of contamination. I went to check later, without my daughter after I pulled myself together. These radioactive clouds are a bit like that and there is nothing but lame, half arsed, evasive non answers from experts to explain where it is coming from. There is nothing partial about the 3 Fukushima melt-throughs or the spent fuel pool that blew up in that second, very dirty looking explosion we’ve all seen(see fairewinds.com) Unfortunately, the reality I’m unwillingly begining to see is this- Its a real bad scene that NOBODY can escape from and its not got going away for several billion years. Bummer. Sorry future generations, we just wanted to boil some water……
the more radiation you get the worse the cacenr incidence as cause of death, and on which current safe levels are predicated now known to be wrong. LNT was clearly disproved, by the experimental data collected to prove it, by a number of authors from a a range of causes of elevated background globally.These populations included people in ventilated by law Radiation deprived basements in the US which had formerly had higher levels of Radon gas from the rock (the rate of lung cacenr significantly increased for the people with the newly radiation free basements, see Dr Bernard Cohen on You Tube for the papers presentation, 1997), a group living in apartments in Taiwan built with Radioactive steel (Co-60 contaminated by NDT source?) and the populations of various high background areas around the World. In SW France they receive c.80mSV pa every year, four times the Fukushima exclusion level, and have very low cacenr mortality. Natural backgound ranges up to over 1,000mSv pa. Radiation workers who receive slightly elevated radiation which is carefully monitored so well known have around 15% lower death rate from cacenr, etc.In summary the results broadly show that deaths from cacenr fall from zero up to 100mSv pa, and then gradually rise again but don’t pass those for very low background in the 1-2mSv levels (AKA under irradiated people like most of us) until around the 1Sv pa level. So 1Sv pa, e.g. 1,000 mSv pa, is now proposed as safe as reasonably possible level, no worse than too low background as in New York, Londo, Tokyo, etc. Professor Wade Allison, an Oxford Professor and Radiation Biologist has written a book on this. Radiation and Reason.The Greens position is entirely based on the disproved LNT theory, as are all their unrealised predictions of mass deaths from Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island, Fukushima, etc. which can never happen, because they are based on a flawed hypothesis now disproved by data, new supporting science for a Hormetic J curve, and observed reality. Most of those people exposed during the historic incidents will be less likely to die of cacenr from elevated background, not more. Expect that result in monitored populations. And any way thee safety record and resilience of newer plants is such that its unlikely anyone wil be able to benefit from an enhanced background from future reactor accidents, which are MUCH less likely, with passive protection and minimal external consequences.Now we know the facts and LNT is disproved we can also react much more proportionally to something we now understand much better, the above DNA work will no doubt refine the science behind the measured efects to support change in safe levels and its application. Certainly all safe levels can be reviewed based on the science, which is still difficult as there is a whole industry based on now unsupported by the science craft enforcing abitrary levels a bit more than background inherited from when we didn’t know what was dangerous and it suited cold war politics. The reason its urgent is the bad science is still used by the Greens against nuclear power, essential as alternatives are far too weak energy sources to power a deveoped economy and useless without fossil backup to counter the variability of what they can expensively produce, so prolonging fossil’s use and symbiotically dependent on it. Only nuclear can power a developed economy when fossil has gone/is unaffordableTime to clear out the radiation luddites and move on before irrational fear plunges the Western World into energy poverty for a false belief. China is planning nuclear power as its core base load energy source ASAP, Russia and many SE Asian countries the same. The can read the writing on the wall re energy supply sustainability as well as the realities regarding safety. Nuclear is massively safer than any other power source including wind in deaths/MWh.PS General note on units for the no radiatoio phyicists here. Be careful re Gray and Sievert equivalence. The Gray is a unit of energy absorbed in a mass, so 1 Joule per Kilogramme. The Sievert attempts to adjust the Gray for the biological impact of the energy the way it gets deposited in the body. So Gamma, X-Ray and beta radiation which react less with the body have a 121 relationship with the Gray, but a dose of Alpha or heavy particle radiation in Grays is multiplied by a factor of 20 to get the dose in Sieverts. Finally neutron interaction increases with energy from 5 20 times, with the maximum at 100 keV – 2 MeV, declining again with increasing energy as interactions decrease, with some variation in the data.So, roughly: 1 Gray is :1Sv of beta, X-Ray, and Gamma radiation 1-30 Sv of neutron and 20 Sv of Alpha.nb: X-Rays come from electron exitation and subsequent decay between orbits so are Atomic radiation, Gamma from nuclear energy changes so are nuclear in origin, both electromagnetic/phtonic, not particle. Beta is an energetic free electron. Alpha a helium nucleus so 2 neutrons and 2 protons, roughly 8,000 times more massive than an electron from memory HEAVY! (check this). Health Warning: Don’t eat your Am-241 Fire alarm core. Stupid people may die.E&OE above. I had to rush. The many scientific papers supporting this are publicly available, its peer reviewed science, not a Green fairy story. The media really don’t want to tell the public the truth. Its there to see but they prefer to scare people using professional liars presented as experts promoting disproved green LNT propaganda presented as science. Read the literature for yourselves and you will see just how blatant and against your long term best interests the irrational part of the anti nuclear lobby is. Reply
This does not take into account the 1,000 or more dangerous radioactive isotopes released during the nuclear meltdown of a nuclear reactor.
The real danger is bio-accumulation and ingestion of these dangerous isotopes via air, water and food. Ingested radiation from the contaminated air, water and food radiates body cells with high doses of radiation for long periods of time. Once ingested you can’t get away from it. It is far more dangerous than what a person is subjected to, from elevated background.
The cells next to these ingested radioactive isotopes are subject to large doses of radiation. Each isotope will be drawn to different parts of the body depending on its chemical affinity. This means a much more shortened life for the men, women and children who ingest this type of internal radioactive contamination.
Everyone is biologically different. Children, and fetuses in a mother’s womb, are much more sensitive to increases in radiation than adults because their cells are dividing much more quickly, and they don’t have well developed immune systems.
As a sub group, young girls are 5 times more sensitive that young boys.