Community Corner
Update: Radiation Levels Pose No Threat, Officials Say
Initial readings reportedly show that radiation from Japan's damaged reactors are not a public health risk in U.S., air quality officials say.
Updated (March 19): The South Coast Air Quality Management District has detected that radiation levels in three regional sites still are not higher than typical “background” levels seen before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. They are actually thousands of times below any level that would trigger concern, district officials said in a statement Saturday.
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Radiation levels measured Friday morning at three regional sites operated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have not been higher than typical levels seen before the earthquake and tsunami-related nuclear crisis in Japan, district officials said in a statement.
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The management district is the smog control agency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It will continue to monitor and assess the hourly radiation levels at sites in Southern California, officials said.
Concern spread across Southern California, including here in Hermosa Beach, as local radiation levels were expected to rise, but the increase wouldn't reach a degree that would affect the public health, said Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Jonathan Fielding (see accompanying video).
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President Barack Obama addressed concerns about radiation during a press conference Thursday.
"I want to be very clear: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it's the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska or U.S. territories in the Pacific," Obama said. "That is the judgement of our Nuclear Regulatory Commission and many other experts."
"Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and public-health experts, do not recommend that people in the United States take precautionary measures beyond staying informed," he added. "Going forward, we will continue to keep the American people fully updated, because I believe that you must know what I know as president."
The EPA’s latest radiation monitoring can be found online.
As more information is released, Patch will report it.
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