(photo: ryanleynse)

Mooo-ve over. Aunt Toby is going to don her ‘batshit crazy fear-mongerin’ hat to pull together more ‘it’s the radiation in your food, stupid’ news for you.

1) Last month, in my usual Food Sunday ‘Food News You Can Use’ gig, I reported that the Chinese government (we’re shocked! Shocked, I tell you!) is showing a bit of concern regarding the fact that no, the baby formula manufacturers who’d doped the stuff with melamine (causing sickness and death to infants in a country where families generally are only allowed ONE), and who had been told to destroy it, had not. They had merely warehoused it and are now quietly releasing it into the market and the food chain. Chinese Tainted Milk- It’s Back!

2) Yesterday, and then today, government agencies in the states of Washington and California reported small levels of radioactive iodine in milk.  If you want to see what your state is doing about monitoring radiation and testing milk, I advise you to go to your state’s health department site. And just for kicks and giggles, California is number 1 in milk production and Washington State is number 10.  Washington State Milk Cali Milk

My point?
First, I’m not a radiology expert. I don’t think there is any such thing as a ‘safe’ dose, particularly for people like pregnant women, infants, kids, the elderly, or people who have been treated for cancer with radiation (hey, remember all the hoohah about the backscanning machines?). To me, talking about radiation is like talking about skin cancer – your body is one giant film badge and the more Xrays, CAT scans, etc. you get, the closer you are to where the tire doesn’t have any more tread, if you understand me. Last year, if you might recall, I broke my shoulder. That day, I had four Xrays. Every time I went to the orthopedist to check on how I was doing, they did two more. By the time I was done, I’d had 8 xrays. And I’d been to the dentist last year, too, and got the full dental around-the-head set. At this point, I’m practically glowing in the dark. But I digress.

There is a lot of junk stuff going on in the media especially about what is going on in Japan at the nuclear power plants: The following was in an article (h/t Margot) in the Hindustani Times at 1:36 IST – this bit disappeared at 1:38 when the article was updated, but still it was out there, total and complete garbage. “Since production of iodine 131 stopped when the Fukushima reactors shut down on March 11, it has already been through two half-lives and could easily be halved once or twice more again before the milk is consumed as cheese or yogurt.” Really? It stopped? Just…like…that? And what about every time they released pressure? And the sea water?  Hindustani times

Second, I want to draw the line between what has happened in China with contaminated baby formula and what is now happening in the US in terms of monitors finding radioactive iodine in the milk. I’m actually more concerned about products made with milk and products made with dried milk and dried milk whey – like protein powders, shakes, liquid food supplements (usually used by the elderly), and baby formulas. While state agricultural and health agencies may order dairy farmers to dump, I seriously doubt they will send around the state police with court orders to watch the people empty their bulk tanks and destroy milk twice a day for the next year. Where is that milk going to go, especially if it can’t be sold into the ‘fresh/liquid’ market? Milk like this most probably will end up in the processing market for things like cheese, yoghurt, dried milk and whey products and I seriously doubt that the manufacturers of these are going to have specialists with Geiger counters checking incoming shipments of the liquid milk before they put them into their processors. I also seriously doubt that the manufacturers of the dried milk and whey proteins are going to test the milk or whey THEY get for radiation either. And then these powders (protein, whey protein or whey isolates) are going to end up with the manufacturers of baby formulas, protein shakes, liquid protein supplemental meals for the elderly, protein bars, and the like.

Third is this – we have no control over what the government is going to do and when, or even IF, they are going to do it (at either the state or federal levels) about saying, “Whoops – all you dairy farmers – the radiation levels in the milk is no longer ‘safe’ – start dumping.” By the time government agencies decide that the radiation levels in milk are high enough to set off the alarms, there will be milk with radioactive particles in it in the food stream – and it’s like all that other food contamination that gets passed from hand to hand to hand in the stream and then months, and years later (just like the doped baby formula in China, after cans of baby formula or protein powder or refrigerated goodness knows what have sat in their warehouses), even if the government has pulled the hammer down,  gets into the food stream again.

Fourth, Daiichi is the Eveready Bunny™ of nuclear accidents. Unlike Chernobyl where there was one horrific blast, this is a leaky gut that no one can even get close to patch, plug, or cover in concrete. Estimates now say this whole thing will be out there for years – and years. And while right now all the attention is on radioactive iodine, which has been made out to be this almost benign thing (‘thank God it’s radioactive iodine – we can treat it with KI’), we’re now hearing about radioactive Cesium, too, and yes, (I am a fear-mongering old biddy) Plutonium and perhaps Strontium as well.

So again (and I fly my ‘blue haired old lady/belt and suspenders’ flag proudly and don’t give a rat’s ass if anyone calls me a fear-monger), a reminder:

In terms of products made with dried milk, dried whey protein, whey protein isolates and so on – what is on the shelves in your store RIGHT NOW and in the warehouses RIGHT NOW, is SAFE. If you have an infant in the house under the age of one, pull enough money together and buy enough to keep the kid going through the year. In the meantime, we can all figure out what we do with kids who drink milk but who no longer will be able to. The best I can come up with at the moment (yick – you CAN get used to it) is to go out and buy a dozen boxes of dried milk.
The same goes for whey protein products like protein shakes, and so on.

In terms of ‘well, what about the water to mix up with this stuff – states are reporting radioactive iodine showing up in water supplies.’ I’m not an expert here – I’d check with my state health department in terms of what sort of water supplies they are testing – is this open reservoir or in-the-ground wells? I’m thinking in-the-ground well water is going to have more protection than open reservoirs, but I might be wrong – again, call your health department and ask if they are testing, what they are finding and what is the source.

Remember: Once you segregate the sickness, injuries and immediate deaths of people directly involved in Chernobyl and close surrounding areas, the biggest numbers of sicknesses in the plume areas are thyroid cancer in infants and children who were fed milk and dairy products after the blast…because the government did not tell the people that it was dangerous. There are many things re this situation in Japan that we cannot control – keeping contaminated dairy and contaminated products made from dairy components is something we CAN control.

For more on the radiation threat to our food supply see:  Food News You Can Use, the Glow in the Dark Edition