FDA Adds Alaska Salmon Testing To Radiation Monitoring Program

"Alaska fish are being tested for radiation contamination from Japan’s leaking Fukushima Nuclear energy plant...

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation State Director of Environmental Health Elaine Busse Floyd says samples of Alaska fish have been submitted to a Federal Food and Drug Administration testing program...

Floyd says each Alaska fish sample, is made up of multiple flesh samples from various species including halibut, pollock, sable fish and salmon, including Copper River and Bristol Bay stocks. The samples were sent to an F.D.A. testing lab in Massachusetts in March, the first time Alaska fish has been submitted for testing.

The action follows public concern that prompted the Fairbanks City Council and North Star Borough Assembly to pass resolutions last month urging the state and federal governments to investigate Fukushima radiation in Alaska. Assembly resolution sponsor John Davies pointed to history in advocating for more information." Alaska Public Media

After disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, and subsequent to above-ground atomic bomb testing, the instinct of government is to downplay contamination concerns and Fukushima has been no different, the article relates. The article also reports 20 samples of fish total will be tested by the FDA in their annual monitoring program.

Beyond Nuclear's take: while it is good that Alaska officials are responding to public concern in a positive, non-dismissive way, 20 samples of fish will not be enough to ensure a robust picture of radiological contamination in food. It is a good, symbolic start, but more widespread testing should be instituted and continued for many years as contamination can shift and bioaccumulate.

One study, modeling ocean currents, contends that six to 10 years after the Fukushima disaster began, radiation levels will be higher off the Western coast of the US than off the coast of Japan. Of course this study had assumed a time certain for cessation of radiation leakage from the ruined facility, a circumstance sadly still out of reach.