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Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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Posted by idaho_gardener 6a_sw_idaho (My Page) on Mon, Feb 1, 10 at 12:41
| I live downwind of where they used to test nuclear devices and got to thinking of what I would do in the future if I had to deal with airborne pollution of soil. Lead from vehicle exhaust was another source of airborne soil contamination that affected city soil.
I was thinking that if I knew that there would be something heading my way that could contaminate my soil, I could cover the soil with plastic sheeting. When the threat had passed, pull the plastic sheeting off and rinse it off on the driveway.
(All this wondering came from thinking about what would happen if China's economy collapsed and conflict ensued.) |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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| Were these underground tests or above ground tests? |
RE: Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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| Google Chernobyl and gardening and you'll find all kinds of stuff you didn't want to know! I think your idea is workable, provided the event doesn't last too long. If the stuff is circling around the atmosphere for a long time, you can't keep the garden coverd for too long. My wife had Hashimodo's Thyroiditis and had to have hers out. We thought about the fact that she grew up down wind of the old above ground nuclear tests. Then she remembered that when she was 2 for some reason the doctors decided there was some problem with her thyroid (too big?) and they nuked it. No records exist, this was about 1960. I'm sure that dose was way more than she ever got from the bomb tests. :-\ |
RE: Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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| Tox, I'm sure you know that radioactive iodine is what damages thyroids. (And radioactive iodine is how they kill the thyroid after it has been damaged.) Thankfully, radioactive iodine has a relatively short half-life. If your wife was downwind of the Nevada test site anytime from the early 50's through the 60's, she would have been at risk. Downwind turns out to include everywhere from Arizona to Idaho. (Sometimes the fallout went as far as New York State and farther.) I think they did the testing in Nevada on odd numbered years; 1951, 1953, 1955. I'll have to check that. The worst of the fallout went to the northwest, but sometimes places like Las Vegas would have ash from the fallout drifting down like snow. People like Patricia Dunn, the former CEO and COB of Hewlett-Packard Company, who were born in Las Vegas during that time, have high rates of cancer. (Her father died of it, and I think her mother died of cancer, too. Ms. Dunn has had several cancers.) The RA iodine is bad enough because it is so rapidly absorbed by the body. But it's the Strontium 90 and its affinity for Calcium that can be the real sleeper. Strontium 90 has a much longer half-life, and having it residing in the bones makes it very dangerous. Thankfully, something simple like covering soil with sheeting during expected times of pollution is effective. |
RE: Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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| Soil pollution from airborn contaminants is happening today. The best thing to do to limit buildup of these pollutants is to get the level of organic matter in your soil up to an acceptable level, 5 to 8 pervent, which has been found to be a very effective method of tying soil contaminants up and eventually vlearing them from the soil. |
RE: Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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| Thanks Idaho for that info. She was actually in NE Nebraska, pretty far downwind, so the dose was quite low there. For her it is just another tiny added increment of environmental risk along with everything else we're exposed to. |
RE: Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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| The RA iodine is bad enough because it is so rapidly absorbed by the body. But it's the Strontium 90 and its affinity for Calcium that can be the real sleeper. Strontium 90 has a much longer half-life, and having it residing in the bones makes it very dangerous. Hope this help. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Liquidation of Nuclear Accident Consequences in Chernobyl
RE: Airborne pollution and soil contamination
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| If you google something like 'control of radioactive soil contaminants', you'll find a lot of information. Sue |
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