This is pretty scary. Radiation from the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan has spread throughout our oceans.
Even though the nuclear power plant disaster was years ago, there are still irradiated fish swimming around. Some of those fish are delicious tuna, and some of those tasty fishies are being caught off the coast of Oregon!
A study of the fish, led by Oregon State University, looked at 26 Pacific albacore tuna caught between 2008 and 2012.
They were testing the fish for radiation related to the disaster.
Even though some of the fish had triple the normal amount of radiation, that’s apparently still safe.
The study’s lead author said:
“You can’t say there is absolutely zero risk because any radiation is assumed to carry at least some small risk. But these trace levels are too small to be a realistic concern. A year of eating albacore with these cesium traces is about the same dose of radiation as you get from spending 23 seconds in a stuffy basement from radon gas, or sleeping next to your spouse for 40 nights from the natural potassium-40 in their body. It’s just not much at all.”
The good news out of this study is fish that were four years old had little to no detectable traces of radiation.
And fish three-years-old and younger?
Most “had no traces of Fukushima at all.”
That’s great news! Still scary but at least we feel safer eating tuna!
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