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NNadir

(36,598 posts)
34. Yes. It does depend on concentration. Shrimp naturally contain radioactive potassium 40, as well as polonium.
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 07:06 AM
Aug 20

All living things contain 40K without which they would die, since potassium is an essential element. The polonium in shrimp is a function of the fact that the oceans naturally contain about 4.5 billion tons of uranium, which is in secular equilibrium with polonium, a decay product.

This point was covered some years back, in the post Fukushima brouhaha, when the lives of tuna were being saved by human paranoia over the presence of another isotope of cesium, the more radioactive 134Cs in response to another paper written by the authors of this one: N.S. Fisher,K. Beaugelin-Seiller,T.G. Hinton,Z. Baumann,D.J. Madigan, & J. Garnier-Laplace, Evaluation of radiation doses and associated risk from the Fukushima nuclear accident to marine biota and human consumers of seafood, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 110 (26) 10670-10675.

The authors of the paper were appalled by the generally stupid media frenzy connected with their previous paper.

From the paper cited:

Recent reports describing the presence of radionuclides released from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Pacific biota (1, 2) have aroused worldwide attention and concern. For example, the discovery of 134Cs and 137Cs in Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis; PBFT) that migrated from Japan to California waters (2) was covered by >1,100 newspapers worldwide and numerous internet, television, and radio outlets. Such widespread coverage reflects the public’s concern and general fear of radiation. Concerns are particularly acute if the artificial radionuclides are in human food items such as seafood. Although statements were released by government authorities, and indeed by the authors of these papers, indicating that radionuclide concentrations were well below all national safety food limits, the media and public failed to respond in measure. The mismatch between actual risk and the public’s perception of risk may be in part because these studies reported radionuclide activity concentrations in tissues of marine biota but did not report dose estimates and predicted health risks for the biota or for human consumers of contaminated seafood. We have therefore calculated the radiation doses absorbed by diverse marine biota in which radioactivity was quantified (1, 2) and humans that potentially consume contaminated PBFT. The aim of this paper is to provide estimated doses, and therefore objective risk estimates, to humans and marine biota...


If you were born after 1945, every fish or other seafood based animal and/or seaweed in sushi you have ever eaten has contained 137Cs from the era of open atmosphere nuclear testing. You are nonetheless, even if you have eaten seafood products, still alive.

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

The US still has an FDA? stollen Aug 19 #1
I read they were cutting funding for the FDA.. whathehell Aug 19 #5
I knew it was Asian shrimp before even opening the story. Callie1979 Aug 19 #2
Too expensive ninjanurse Aug 19 #11
Our waters are cleaner than theirs. Add in their farmed shrimp for a real mess Callie1979 Aug 19 #19
Cleaner for now hadEnuf Aug 20 #37
The US does produce shrimp. Old Crank Aug 20 #31
Yes you can tell where it comes from on the label. Usually Vietnam. Callie1979 Aug 20 #38
Smething similar happened to Spiderman.. Permanut Aug 19 #3
RFK Jr. gonna be up there chowing down shrimp like George Costanza Prairie Gates Aug 19 #4
Well, the Jerk Store called... tinrobot Aug 19 #20
I wouldn't eat anything from Walmart Quanto Magnus Aug 19 #6
Hard to do ninjanurse Aug 19 #12
My ex-wife got curtains from there about 25 years ago wolfie001 Aug 19 #17
Go for the radio active shrimp...stay for the huge tariff!! Bengus81 Aug 19 #7
Glowing in the dark may be a clue you already did! Fla Dem Aug 19 #8
Fukushima ninjanurse Aug 19 #9
Cesium 137 is a product of nuclear reactions. Old Crank Aug 20 #32
That's a new one! Lulu KC Aug 19 #10
Sanitizing ninjanurse Aug 19 #15
Oops angryxyouth Aug 19 #13
Why am I not surprised? Talitha Aug 19 #14
I'm shocked the FDA is still in enough of a functional state to even make this announcement public. Karasu Aug 19 #16
Do they glow in the dark? Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Aug 19 #18
Bring your geiger counters to the seafood aisle tinrobot Aug 19 #21
Half life of Cesium 137 is 30 years. This stuff is f-ing deadly. nt Xipe Totec Aug 19 #22
How "deadly" is it? Can you share some numbers connected with the number of deaths it's caused? NNadir Aug 19 #24
It all depends on the concentration, doesn't it? Xipe Totec Aug 19 #27
Yes. It does depend on concentration. Shrimp naturally contain radioactive potassium 40, as well as polonium. NNadir Aug 20 #34
How do you like ya shrimp? twodogsbarking Aug 19 #23
Holy shit.... YoshidaYui Aug 19 #25
If you take RadX, first, it might be OK. Gore1FL Aug 19 #26
Self-BBQing Shrimp on the Barbi? James48 Aug 20 #28
Looks like just the raw shrimp Bayard Aug 20 #29
This message was self-deleted by its author Bayard Aug 20 #30
Robert Kennedy will be feeding it to his family rpannier Aug 20 #33
Cesium137 Javaman Aug 20 #35
I'll bet there are many worse toxins in shrimp... hunter Aug 20 #36
I'm glad we already ate ours. I get irritable at having to throw away food. Seeking Serenity Aug 20 #39
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