Part of our 4000 Mile Radioactive Road Trip fact finding mission to the Southern Most Point in the United States.
Time: 3pm July 26, 2011
Location: Disney World Wilderness Lodge
Observations made:
(1) The further we traveled away from the jet-stream, the lower the radioactivity in the rainfall.
(2) Storms moving East to West from Africa via the hurricane Corridor tended to have ZERO radioactivity
This link explains a lot of things:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.senes.ca/japan/forecasts.html
Can you provide info on how toxic this rainfall is? How should I deal with it? What are valid safety precautions to take? If you got wet from the rain, would taking a shower right away be a valid precaution?
ReplyDeleteIf you mean the rainfall in the Disney Wilderness Lodge video; as low as the reading was we ignored it.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Saint Louis, If I got soaked by one of these rainfalls, I would take a shower. For the short half life component of the rainfall, I would be most concerned about exposure to Scalp, head, and face because that's the most vulnerable skin.
However, the longer half life component is the most concerning. I would do my best to avoid inhalation and ingestion. I would avoid tracking it into the house. That means not pulling the car into the garage until it has been washed by a brushed car wash. It also means a place is needed for wet clothes.
If I had to drive through such a rain storm I would set my car's hvac controls to recirculate, and if possible, air conditioning . I would set the fan to as low as possible. I also plan to start wearing a P100 dust mask when mowing the lawn.
In regards to how toxic it is, who knows? Some people claim 1 ATOM of Plutonium in the lungs in enough to eventually lead to lung cancer; that seems a stretch to me. In the end, everyone needs to make their own cost effective mitigation strategy.
Ok, that's good info. I suppose frequent wet wipes of hard surface floors are a good idea. What about carpet?
ReplyDeleteAlso, is there a difference between pavement and grass in terms of walking/running on it? Would you expect that your shoes would have picked up particles and try to clean them off?
ReplyDeleteConcrete vs grass, I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to carpet, that is the last place one would want fallout because the vacuum cleaner is going to send it air born. The safest bet would be to leave the shoes outside or use a mud room type approach. For the time being our thrust is not to bring rain soaked items into the house.