Are Prius Radiation Levels Checked By Factory?

yes.

 

evidently the new prii don't have headlights because the glow in the dark is so bright.

 

I cannot believe that in this day and age an adult human being would even ask such a question.:jaw:
How many times have you actually watched of "Godzilla"?
More importantly, how many "Barbies" do you own?

 

My expertise is in nuclear engineering, casualty analysis and emergency planning. Actually, it's not a dumb question. The question also applies to any type of manufactured product.

Fission products above legal limits for ground contamination were detected hundreds of miles away, but a lot of it has decayed away (the shorter half-life isotopes), and very little of it made its way indoors. The real concern was for agriculture in nearby communities.

However, bottom line, even at its highest levels (just days after the casualty) the contamination levels and radiation levels were never a health concern hundreds of miles away. In the business of selling sensationalized stories, the media would like you to believe differently. Despite what you may have heard in the media, there have been no deaths due to acute radiation exposure. Scientists predict that worst case, there will be up to 100 extra deaths in the long-term due to cancer in the Fukushima area (out of a millions of people) caused by the release of fission products. Mathematically, this would go unnoticed among the typical number of cancer deaths. Not diminishing the significance of the historic tragic event, nor making excuses, but just putting it in perspective.

I would assume anything manufactured in Japan is monitored for traces of contamination and decontaminated if necessary. The government is sensitive to international perception and doesn't want its exports to be a cause for shame. So, you shouldn't be worried. My only concern is for the heroic site workers and emergency responders who were exposed to serious levels, perhaps high enough to result in some biological effects.

 

I'm not saying you are wrong, but I can't make that assumption. Japan is facing recovery and economic challenge. Can you imagine the potential blow to exports (automotive and otherwise) if it was revealed that radiation levels in some products were unsafe?

I also think "if" Prius were being monitored or tested randomly for radiation levels, we'd hear about it. Some alarmist 20/20 report would be blaring the headline "Is Your Car Radioactive!"...since I haven't heard anything like this, the only assumption I make is that A: The threat of danger is so minimal that nobody is even taking it seriously OR B: It's something Japanese industry want's to keep as quiet as possible.

So to me? It comes down to is the concern legitimate? If there is reason for legitimate concern? My feeling is the threat is so tangibly minimal as to be one nobody is taking seriously. Otherwise I would expect to see some CBS news personality walking towards a Prius with a geiger counter...

 

Depends on how you define "contamination". But what is relevant to you is risk, which is ZERO. In fact, you are at higher risk than the average American due to your location, proximate to Palo Verde and higher than average insolation.

 

Initially Toyota and Nissan released some press reports about checking vehicles for radiation. You would be wise to have your car checked by a Geiger counter and change the air filter at the very least. Any car produced in Japan on 3.11 or later should be scanned. The outside is not the problem since it can be washed. It is the interior that is worry some. You don't want to internalize those"HOT" particles in your lungs.

Only about 5 cars are checked out of every container shipment and port workers in various countries have discovered cars and ships that have levels even when they just stopped in a Japanese port for a short time.

A. Yes it possible.
B. Change your air filter.
C. Scan your car for peace of mind.
D. Map of Production Facilities locations in Japan, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and parts suppliers including how close they are to Fukushima.
bayimg - image: Japan Car Plants.jpg - free uncensored image hosting

Contact me with any questions.

carz89 is wrong about deaths from acute radiation. The second contract worker that died at Fukushima was from acute leukemia and he was only there for one week!

This is where informed people are getting information about Japan.

ENENEWS.COM
Updates on Fukushima: | Fairewinds Associates, Inc
UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Air Monitoring Station | The Nuclear Engineering Department At UC Berkeley
EX-SKF Financial and Economic News, Data, Links, Analysis and Commentary

 

40-year-old Fukushima radiation worker dies of acute leukemia after working at plant for week — Checkup showed no prior health problems

40-year-old Fukushima radiation worker dies of acute leukemia after working at plant for week — Checkup showed no prior health problems « ENENEWS.COM

 

Full disclosure: I have a physics PhD and worked at numerous accelerator facilities in the 90s. I am telling you unequivocally that you do not need to have your car scanned by a Geiger counter. Changing the cabin air filter will do nothing even if there is a problem.

For different "spin" on the death of the worker, please take a look at Worker Death From “Acute Leukemia” At Fukushima Daiichi | SimplyInfo

 

seilerts this comes from Arnold Gunderson. Are you saying you know more than him. A 39 year veteran of the Nuclear industry?

According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. These are referred to as "hot particles".

"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant," he explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April."

 

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Gundersen]Arnold Gundersen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

His website:

Updates on Fukushima: | Fairewinds Associates, Inc

 

crackpot!!!!

 

We had a long thread on this well before this nuke plant issue.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...0-prius-set-off-nypd-radiation-detectors.html

 

Don't confuse "acute leukemia" with acute radiation syndrome (ARS). The second worker died from acute leukemia, not radiation exposure. Thousands of people die from "acute leukemia" every year. That doesn't mean that radiation was the cause. The worker only had 50 mrem of exposure, not enough to even make a mouse sick. I searched the internet high and low and there is not a single media report from any country disputing the report.

50 mrem is a very low level, far below the limit for radiation worker exposure (5000 mrem/yr). It's generally accepted in the radiation health science community that it would take a dose of 10,000 mrem over an extremely short period (a couple hours - that's an "acute" dose) to have even the slightest noticeable medical effect.

I say again, there have been no reported deaths at Fukushima due to an acute dose of radiation. That's not saying there won't be an increase in cancer deaths due to radiation exposure from Fukushima -- I can guarantee there will be. But it's a long-term process. For anyone to have died this soon from cancer due to radiation from Fukushima, it would have had to have been a relatively acute dose.

 

This is absolute BS! Modern radiation detectors are extremely sensitive, almost too sensitive for our own good. When instruments detected radioactive iodine and cesium on the West Coast a few days after Fukushima, the levels were 6 orders of magnitude below the limits for airborne radioactivity established by the EPA. Of course the media, who has zero understanding of science, jumped right on these extremely low levels and made millions of Americans concerned about their health -- so much so that many went to drug stores to buy KI pills and take them. Fools! Taking a KI pill is actually more of a risk to your health if you are not exposed to dangerous levels of RI.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...not-linked-to-power-plant/UPI-94461314694873/


"Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. The area got hit pretty heavy in April"? Wth - who writes this sensationalized, non-scientific crap? I don't care what his "qualifications" are. There are a lot of dumb people out there that claim to be experts or have advanced degrees. Or perhaps they really are smart, but have an agenda and think they can fool everyone into believing their explanation of the science. Remember the guy who "scientifically" analyzed that the Prius was more polluting than a Hummer? He didn't scientifically analyze crap. He had an agenda.

Radiation instruments will detect any particle that could be a radiation hazard to your health. ESPECIALLY the ones set up for internal monitoring of anything you may have breathed or ingested. I was internally monitored by my Navy employer just a couple months ago. After the scan, the technician said I was clean (he was primarily monitoring for Cobalt-60), but then joked that he could tell I ate two bananas in the last 24 hours. I was shocked! He was exactly correct about the bananas, which contain very low levels of radioactive potassium.

 

You boys are NUTS!
You remind me of the dope who insisted that he have a lead mesh over his computer monitor to protect him from "the radiation."

 

Links? As a lifelong Pacific Northwest resident, and current resident of the greater Seattle area, I want to compare his claims against the news reports we were fed at the time.

Yes, radioactive fallout was detected in our rainwater. Yes, it contained enough information to identify and characterize core breaches well before TEPCO admitted to it.

But no, is was considerably weaker than the Chernobyl fallout at the same monitoring stations. And it was far less than what our own government exposed us to from Hanford's intentional but secret releases in the 50s and 60s.

The iodine was strong enough to be a serious threat to anyone drinking fresh undiluted rainwater from a rooftop catchment system if it happened every day of their lives. But in our water system, it is strongly diluted by the rest of the water in the reservoirs, then delayed many halflives from the time it falls until it is delivered to our taps. And this contaminated rain has fallen for only a handful of days every other decade, compared to EPA standards written for two liters of water consumed every day of a person's life.

I have seen nothing to suggest that this fallout will be a meaningful health threat here, especially compared to pre-existing issues. If you have information to the contrary, I want to see it.

 

" The total amount of iodine-131 and caesium-137 released into the atmosphere has been estimated to exceed 10% of the emissions from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster" - Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It certainly is NOT the worst, I am not sure it is in the top 5.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Fukushima7.png

 

here is a picture of a monkeys lung with a HOT particle in it.

http://acelebrationofwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/HOT-PARTICLES.jpg

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Arnold Gunderson is testing Air Filters that are sent to him.
All you need to do is contact him for this service.