The team reported that a 7-ounce, restaurant-size serving of Pacific bluefin tuna contaminated with cesium at the level recorded in fish caught off the coast of San Diego in August 2011 delivered a 7.7 nanosievert dose of radiation — about 5% of the dose one would get from eating a garden-variety banana. Bananas contain a naturally occurring isotope of potassium, they wrote.
A hypothetical fisherman who consumed about five times as much fish as the average American would get… about the same amount of radiation a person receives when getting a dental X-ray, the team wrote. The increased probability of developing a fatal cancer for the hypothetical fisherman was 0.00002%, the equivalent of two additional cancers per 10 million people.
You know me: I’m greatly disturbed by the radiation draining into the ocean from the Fukushima powerplant. But this bluefin story sounded suspicious from the beginning.
Also, this map?
It’s not a map of the radiation basically consuming the Pacific Ocean. It’s a map of the wave height following the earthquake that caused the tsunami. Tell your Facebook friends to stop spreading it around. Not helpful.