Radiation California Remain Normal

Radiation levels in California remain normal, air quality officials said Friday morning. Trace amounts of radiation apparently from the crippled nuclear power plant in Japan have started to reach California, but they pose no health risks, according to news reports.

However, Radiation Network doesn't report southern California, where the radiation was originally said to be on the rise. For southern Californian's concerned about radiation levels, a good site to check out is Enviro Reporter's streaming video footage of radiation monitors in West LA.

The radiation level is currently about 35, which is interestingly higher than central California's current 29. Radiation Network's Geiger Map on March 19, 5:24 Eastern Time: www.radiationnetwork.com. As an East-Coaster whose never given radiation levels much thought, the news about rising levels in Cali (and then not rising) made me think--what are the effects of high radiation levels? What's considered a dangerously high level of radiation? Furthermore, an association exists between high levels of radiation and cancer. Sources of Radiation in the U.S.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has detectors in Anaheim, Fontana and Riverside monitoring airborne radiation; the California Department of Public Health operates a fourth detector in the downtown Los Angeles area.

A diplomat with access to radiation tracking by the United Nations' Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization told the Associated Press that initial readings are "about a billion times beneath levels that would be health threatening." Federal officials and radiation experts in the United States insist there's no threat to public health from the radiation plume, but they are still closely monitoring the situation with detection monitors along the West Coast, the AP said.

The chances of any radioactive plume reaching the United States are "close to zero," Jacqueline Williams, program director for radiation medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Center for Biophysical Assessment and Risk Management Following Irradiation, told HealthDay earlier this week.