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Z-j =o=1"o[ A radiation monitor in California has detected a trace of radioactive material from the stricken nuclear power plant in Japan, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization said Friday, but an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman said it has found no increase in levels.
9NpD!A&64< The exact amounts were not available, but the test ban organization's executive secretary, Tibor Toth, said the measurements were below what would be considered harmful to human health.
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The test ban organization maintains a worldwide network of monitoring stations to look for evidence of nuclear explosions that could violate the prohibition in its namesake treaty -- which has not been ratified -- against open-air nuclear weapons testing. It announced Friday that it has started sharing its monitoring data and analysis reports with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization because it could prove useful in cases like Japan's.
l{WjDed @aG&n(.!u* y L1bS|@ xN"Z1n7t ktH8as^54! The Sacramento monitor detected minute amounts of radionuclides -- substances that emit radiation -- which had been expected, said Toth.
s0W2?!>) But EPA spokesman Francisco Arcaute told CNN that monitors at three sites operated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District for the EPA have not recorded anything higher than the typical "background" levels seen before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. "We do not expect to see harmful levels of radiation," he said.
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=VP=|g The test ban organization's discovery is no cause for alarm, said Graham Andrew, an official with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Rf"Mr: ^ "As of now, there are no concerns in Japan or elsewhere about human health," he said.
5OP`c< JXU2CyMY $t =O: California public health officials had predicted Thursday that some radioactive particles might be detected, but predicted they would pose no danger.
#D%ygh = Even before the discovery, some drugstores in California were running out of potassium iodide , which prevents some of radioactive iodine's harm to the thyroid.
jE/oA<^ Public health officials have urged people not to take potassium iodide as a preventive measure. It collects in the thyroid, protecting it from absorbing radioactive iodine. But it carries its own side effects, especially for people who have allergies to iodine or shellfish, or who have thyroid problems.
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