Nuclear Incident Belgium, radioactive Iodine-131 gas leaking since one week, no fruits

by SOLARLIFE | August 29, 2008 at 11:14 am | 817 views | 17 comments | 11 recommendations

AUG-29
The medical LAB IRE at Fleurus Belgium was emitting since minum one week
radioactive Iodine gas, contaminating the area longterm, no peak but vegetables
fruits from garden banned from eating. Children should not walk in the green.
20 000 PEOPLE will turn to bottled water and prepare for longterm impact.

The European Commission said Friday it had received an overnight alert from Belgium concerning a radioactive leak at the Institute National de Radio-elements (IRE) in Fleurus.

There had been a release of gaseous Iodine-131 from this facility, said the commission, the executive body of the European Union (EU).

The incident had been classified Level 3 on the seven-level International Nuclear Event Scale on Tuesday.

Belgian authorities have implemented protective action on the basis of environmental sample analyses, with restrictions imposed on the consumption of local food produce -- vegetables and milk --up to a distance of 5 km.

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cassy82

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:25 on August 29th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Barry Artiste

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:26 on August 29th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff.

SOLARLIFE

at 12:26 on August 29th, 2008

Thanks cassy82 for Flag "Nuclear incident Belgium", hope foreclosers under control., Thanks

SOLARLIFE

at 12:28 on August 29th, 2008

Thanks Barry for Flag "Nuclear incident Belgium", well Belgium and France speak french, same incidents, one week delay for action quiet scary

moonwolf

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:08 on August 29th, 2008

Man that is really bad news. Unlike most poisons all radioactive isotopes like this will be lethal for thousands of years and slowly they spread and combine, building to ever higher levels in the environment. This is the main reason nuclear energy can never be considered safe.

Emilio Lizardo

at 14:06 on August 29th, 2008

Radioactive Iodine is extra bad because the fallout gets on the grass and whatnot, then the cows eat it, and then - bingo !! - the kids drink the milk, and iodine for some reason likes to build up in the thyroid, and since the thyroid is the controller of growth anyway, it is very active in kids, and so then, if the exposure is bad enough, out must come the thyroid by surgery, but that's ok, since pharmaceutical companies sell thyroid replacement hormone which the victim will have to remain on for the rest of their lives ... < deep breath > ...

room_advert (not verified)

at 16:06 on September 15th, 2008

Hope this information is of some relevance to your point "all radioactive isotopes...lethal for thousands of years"

I believe the half life of iodine 131 is 8 days and it forms xenon 131 (via beta decay) which is a stable ie non-radioactive isotope

so within 8 weeks any iodine is down to below 0.8 percent and after another 8 weeks, 0.8 percent of the first 0.8 percent etc

see for example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine

I think therefore that thousands of years is a misplaced figure

room_advert (not verified)

at 16:06 on September 15th, 2008

Hope this information is of some relevance to your point "all radioactive isotopes...lethal for thousands of years"

I believe the half life of iodine 131 is 8 days and it forms xenon 131 (via beta decay) which is a stable ie non-radioactive isotope

so within 8 weeks any iodine is down to below 0.8 percent and after another 8 weeks, 0.8 percent of the first 0.8 percent etc

see for example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine

I think therefore that thousands of years is a misplaced figure

SOLARLIFE

at 16:32 on September 15th, 2008

room_advert (not verified) thanks for info, but unfotunately Iodine-131 is very toxic causing Thyroid cancer

read pdf file

ATSDR Agency for toxic substances
Evaluation of Iodine-131
Manhattan project 1944 - 1956
THYROID CANCER BY FOOD AIR WATER
CONTACT WITH IODINE-131

STUDY pdf
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/PHA/OakRidgeI131_022508/orr_iodine_tech-factsheet_508.pdf

SOLARLIFE

at 13:23 on August 29th, 2008

Thanks moonwolf for Flag "Nuclear Incident Belgium, radioactive Iodine" your point "radioactive isotopes like this will be lethal for thousands of years and slowly they spread and combine". Nobody expressed as clear, this is a first serious longterm contamination without peak.

Emilio Lizardo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:51 on August 29th, 2008

SOLARLIFE, I like this story. It's good stuff.

SOLARLIFE

at 14:15 on August 29th, 2008

Thanks Emilio for Flag"Belgium, radioactive Iodine-131 gas leaking" your comment"the fallout gets on the grass and whatnot, then the cows eat it, and then - bingo !! - the kids drink the milk" Thanks for all comments. The incident was like always downplayed. One comment made me thinking "longterm effects" now I know.

Emilio Lizardo

at 14:25 on August 29th, 2008

oh, yeah, Solar ... There's even recent data from the Chernobyl incident about the really bad effects it had on the kids ... Radioactive Iodine is the main reason - it is NASTY !!!

Emilio Lizardo

at 14:52 on August 29th, 2008

Thyroid Cancer Effects in Children
Staff Report - August 2005

The main consequence of the Chernobyl accident is thyroid cancer in children, some of whom were not yet born at the time of the accident. Following the vapour explosion and fire at the Chernobyl reactor, radioactive iodine was released and spread in the surrounding area. Despite measures taken, children in southern Belarus and northern Ukraine, were exposed to radiation in the weeks following the accident , particularly by consuming milk from pastured cows and leafy vegetables that had been contaminated with radioactive iodine. These children were also relatively more vulnerable because their usual diet, in general, was low in iodine.

The thyroid is a small gland located in the front of the neck. It concentrates iodine from the diet and blood to produce important hormones that help the body function normally. Thyroid cancer is a very rare disease. Since the thyroid gland concentrates iodine, it is highly susceptible to radiation damage from any intake of radioactive isotopes of iodine.

Once ingested or inhaled, the radioactive iodine remains in the thyroid and can cause thyroid cells to become cancerous and tumours to form. According to the Chernobyl Forum, some 4000 cases of thyroid cancers have occurred in about 18 million individuals who were exposed as children or adolescents during the Chernobyl accident.

Thyroid Cancers in the Aftermath of Chernobyl
The Chernobyl reactor accident resulted in massive releases of I-131 and other radioiodines. Beginning approximately 4 years after the accident, a sharp increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer among children and adolescents in Belarus and Ukraine (areas covered by the radioactive plume) was observed. In some regions, for the first 4 years of this striking increase, observed cases of thyroid cancer among children aged 0 through 4 years at the time of the accident exceeded expected number of cases by 30- to 60-fold. During the ensuing years, in the most heavily affected areas, incidence is as much as 100-fold compared to pre-Chernobyl rates (Robbins and Schneider 2000; Gavrilin et al., 1999; Likhtarev et al., 1993; Zvonova and Balonov 1993). The majority of cases occurred in children who apparently received less than 30 cGy to the thyroid (Astakhova et al., 1998). A few cases occurred in children exposed to estimated doses of < 1 cGy.

SOLARLIFE

at 14:57 on August 29th, 2008

Thanks for your co-writing Emilio, makes me feel not so good. As I see you describe "radioactive iodine remains in the thyroid ". I understand now, why we get checked here at the doctors for it. Bad souvenirs, the French riviera and Corsica have taken a full hit during the russian chernobyl accident. Why ? The radioactive clouds went down here. Still today it's not recomended to eat wild mushrooms, they suck radioactivity. Iodine salt good. I remember the day it happened I was flying with a Cessna through the radioactive clouds. We had no warnings. Authorities in France are to blame for that; practically explaining radioactivity would stop at the French border. The nuclear industry did and does a lot of lobbying for prefabricated disinformation. There is always no danger. What you can not see can't be dangerous ?

Emilio Lizardo

at 15:21 on August 29th, 2008

Yes, I rember clearly that it was some other country entirely, maybe Swiss, who first detected the spike in their air monitors - the Russians said nothing ... I think they found it 4 or 5 days after the incident, about like this situation ... bad, bad, bad ...

Solar, I think maybe I should have got your permission first before putting all this extra stuff in the comments. My intentions were only to provide what I consider to be very important background information for the benefit of anybody who happens to get the chance to read your important story.

I started out to just double-check myself on the first comment I made here, since it's been quite a long time since I looked into the Chernobyl incident - and I found out my memory did indeed serve correctly ...

All those folks in Belgium, hopefully, will get themselves up to speed very quickly on this Iodine thing, especially if they've got kids ...

SOLARLIFE

at 13:27 on August 30th, 2008

The comment "makes me feel not so good" referred to your writing's knowledge transfer (not the co-writing), because it means I have to check myself, living here at the ancient chernobyl cloud area. Out of your explainer I understood why doctors checking our "thyroid". They never told us why, this was the item "makes me not feel good" Thanks for effort Emilio good information