Set Aside an Hour this Sunday for your Health: Special Broadcast

I have not been making a lot of facebook or blog posts lately due to our current focus here on dietary and lifestyle changes required to reduce radiation exposure from food and environment. Today pronuclear engineer Michael Friedlander was quoted in Bloomberg today saying that the fuel rod removal that is starting to get underway at Fukushima fuel pool 4 this month is keeping him up at night with concern. I feel the same way. It will be a huge danger to the North America if the removal goes badly. You can take proactive measures for the health of yourself and family. Dr. John Apsley will be on Natural Health 365 this Sunday. (You can listen to the program for free on Sunday, and then afterwards there is a charge). Apsley is the author of the book Fukushima Meltdown and Modern Radiation: Protecting Ourselves and Future Generations. Follow the link below to get to the show on Sunday:

Fukushima Update: Action Steps and Solutions with - John Apsley, MD(E), ND, DC holds degrees in medicine, chiropractic care and nutrition. Dr. Apsley issues his most serious alert - to date - about the dangers surrounding the Fukushima nuclear power plant. With a comprehensive 4-step program, you'll learn how to protect yourself from radiation poisoning. If you live in the northern hemisphere - do NOT miss this program. Next Show! Sun. Nov. 10, 2013 Available 9:00 am - 9:00 pm (EST)

Tips for Reducing Soil-to-Plant Radiation Transfer in the Garden

With continued leakage of radiation from Fukushima and burning of radioactive waste, radiation exposure is an ongoing concern. We know that radiation can travel quickly around the globe via the jet stream. Western United States are particularly vulnerable. Previously I wrote about personal care tips for avoiding radiation. Today I will share with you what I have learned about gardening to avoid radioactive contamination of produce as well as other resources on this topic.

The safest options for producing non-radioactive foods are growing in a green house, sprouting indoors, growing hydroponically indoors, and covering outdoor growing beds during rain storms to prevent exposure to rain water. However, if you plan to continue growing outside under standard conditions, there are things you can do to help protect your soil.

Use Filtered Water to Irrigate the Garden: You can use Zeolite filtered rain water or filtered tap water to water your garden. Zeolite is a mineral formed over time when volcanic ash combines with salt water. It's unique structure allows it to bind up heavy particles such as radioactive Cesium. It is used extensively in nuclear waste clean up. A filter can be made from PVC components, a scouring pad, and Sweet PDZ, which is trade name for Zeolite powder. Sweet PDZ is inexpensive and available at animal feed stores, because it used in horse stalls for reducing odors.



Feed Your Soil: The most important method for reducing soil to plant uptake of radioactive particles, as demonstrated in studies with radioactive Cesium and Strontium, is providing rich healthy organic matter to the soil. Organic gardeners with good composting habits are already a step ahead when it comes to protecting their plants. Personally, I think that the mineral rich additive such as Azomite, a volcanic ash, may also be beneficial, though I haven't found any research to confirm that. Azomite contains minerals and trace elements that improve overall soil function.

Sandy Soils Need Special Attention: Sandy soils, such as the soil we have here in Central Florida, is a factor which increases soil-to-plant uptake of radioactive particles. For this type of soil reducing the relative sand content by adding clay and organic matter is important.

Special Soil Amendments Clay, Calcium, and Zeolite: All soils that are not already rich in clay will benefit from this soil additive. Clay helps reduce soil-to-plant transfer of radioactive Cesium and Strontiun. After clay, Calcium is also important for reducing soil-to-plant transfer of radioactive Cesium and Strontium. Agriculture Lime is one option for supplementing Calcium. From what I understand it is particularly important to supplement with Calcium prior to harvest of leafy green vegetables. The addition of Clay and Calcium is most effective in soils that are low in organic matter. Adding it to healthy rich organic soils will also have some effect in reducing soil-to-plant radioactive Cesium and Strontium transfer, but not as significant as compared to undernourished soils. Zeolite is a mineral that can also be added to soils to reduce the uptake of Cesium to plants. The Japanese Government ordered farmers to add Zeolite to their rice fields after the Fukushima accident in the hopes of preventing radioactive contamination of rice. About 6 grams of Zeolite powder per 1 square foot of is what I calculated to be required after reading acreage recommendations at Acsending Star Seed. I am not sure what the acreage calculations were based on. I added powdered Zeolite to my soil in the form of Sweet PDZ using Joel Tippens' powdered donut method for applying blood meal, bone meal and cottonseed meal. I simply sprinkled the soil with a light layer of Sweet PDZ powder until it was lightly covered like a powdered donut. This soil amendment does not change the soil pH.

Inoculate your Soil with Mushroom Spores: Darkly pigmented fungus have been shown to feed on gamma radiation. Adding mushroom compost to your soil or adding spores from mature melanin pigmented mushrooms, may be able to divert radioactive particles out of your soils and away from your veggies. The area underneath a mushroom cap holds the spores. You can simply tap the tiny spores into your garden beds by patting the top of a mature brown mushroom.

If you are concerned about radiation, but are unsure if you should take preventative measures, you might want to take advantage of free radiation testing tor your home or car air filters or check out the Radiation Network for real time citizen reported radiation monitoring. I purchased a geiger counter kit last week from one of my husband's regular suppliers and we tested our Central Florida (32117) soil and rain water, Hepa filter and various foods. Thankfully there were no issues with anything we tested, but I am still very much acting with precaution.

In my next related blog post I will be sharing about a common wild flower that acts as an indicator for radioactive contamination and share some images of common herbal weeds with very strange mutations from the Northern United States. I'm very curious what you all think of the pictures and if you have seen anything like it before.

Recommendations for Organic matter, Clay, Lime, and Zeolite additives are based on research published in the following articles:

A review of literature on the effectiveness of chemica amendments in reducing the soil-to-plant transfer of radiostrontium and radiocaesium by J. Lembechts. Science of The Total Environment Vol. 137, Issues 1-3, 2-4 September 1993, pages 81-98

Effect of Different Treatments on 85Sr Plant Uptake in Various Soil Types by E. Koblinger-Bokori and P. Szerbin. Proceedings Congress of IRPA Hiroshima: 2000. CD-ROM.

Influence of zeolite on the availability of radiocaesium in soil to plants. by M.A. Shernber and K.J. Johanson. Science of the Total Environment. 1992. Volume: 113, Issue: 3, Pages; 287-295

Tips for Avoiding Radiation in Daily Life

As a parent of small children, I am especially concerned about radioactive particle contamination in the atmosphere from Fukushima. Unless you have been carefully following various online reports, you may wonder why I am concerned about radiation since I am living in Florida and not Japan. Florida had the highest radioactive Iodine levels in the US one month after the Fukushima reactor accident. California and Washington had very high levels of radiation reported also. These videos show videos from EnviroReporter's youtube stream. The first shows his test results from his California HEPA filters and the 2nd shows Michigan Rain water test results.



Why is radiation from Fukushima effecting the US? In addition radioactive particle release from the initial accident, the Japanese government has ordered the burning of 500,000 tons of radioactive to continue through 2014. The United States is directly down wind of Japan via the Jet Stream which carries air and rain water toward us rapidly.

Hopefully now you have enough information to see where I'm coming from and you can follow up and do a little more research on your own by following the embedded links in this post. I am still learning, but I would like to share what I have found so far regarding personal protection. If you have other ideas, or if I have left something out, please feel welcome to leave comments.

Tips for Avoiding Radiation:

~ Use and umbrella if you have to go out in the rain or just stay out of direct contact with the rain.
~ Leave your shoes outside when you go in the house.
~ Avoid tuna and other Pacific Sea Foods
~ Avoid outdoor grown mushrooms which accumulate radioactivity
~ Invest in a HEPA filter for your home. If you have a vacuum cleaner, make sure that it has a HEPA filter also.
~ Iodine supplementation is suggested for preventing radioactive Iodine uptake. Some people suggest seaweed as a source or Iodine. I think this is probably ok considering the half life of radioactive Iodine is about 8 days, but I am not sure given the current state of the oceans. Other people say to avoid the seaweed due to ocean contamination completely. What do you think?
~ To help prevent uptake of radioactive Strontium to the bones, take a Calium-Magnesium Vitamin supplement. This is even more important than Iodine supplementation, because radioactive Cesium has an exceptionally long half life.
~ From the Combating Radiation forum: "Soak all greens and vegetables or fruit that cannot be peeled in a mixture of 4 ounces of baking soda per gallon for at least 20 minutes. You can also scrub foods with baking soda and a damp sponge (use rubber gloves if your food is dusty from fallout and avoid breathing the dust). Baking soda absorbs uranium and some other radioactive particles very well"
~ On your body, baking soda and Bentonite clay can be used externally to bind many radioactive particles. Food grade bentonite can also be used in small amounts internally. Baking soda can be used in bath salt recipes or as a body scrub with 1 part baking soda, 1 part base oil such as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Jojoba, Grapeseed oil, etc.

Activated Charcoal is another substance which is capable of binding radioactive particles. Zeolite, also known as Clinoptilolite is used specifically for cleaning up nuclear waste.

What about radiation concerns for gardening and wild harvesting and processing herbs? I have already started taking steps in my garden to prevent soil to plant transmission of radioactive particles. I will be make a separate post for avoiding radiation in the garden soon.