Removing radioisotopes and fallout from drinking water

As radioactive fallout drifts into California and across the U.S., you may want to be concerned with removing radioisotopes from your drinking water. You may be wondering how the Japanese Nuclear Emergency is affecting your drinking water. This article discusses the isotopes that may be present in your water and how to remove them.

And more importantly … what can you do to protect yourself.

So far, the following elements have shown up in rain and drinking water supplies in some places across the U.S.:

iodine – 131

cesium-137

xenon-133

tellurium-132

You can learn more about these at www.wikipedia.com, but one key thing to know is the position of the group Physicians for Social Responsibility: ‘According to the National Academy of Sciences, there are no safe doses of radiation. Decades of research show clearly that any dose of radiation increases an individual’s risk for the development of cancer.

“There is no safe level of radionuclide exposure, whether from food, water or other sources.  Period,” said Jeff Patterson, DO, immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility.  “Exposure to radionuclides, such as iodine-131 and cesium-137, increases the incidence of cancer. For this reason, every effort must be taken to minimize the radionuclide content in food and water.”’

Several of these radioactive isotopes have been found in the drinking water supplies of various cities across the U.S..

There is a great deal of confusing information on the internet about removing these radioactive isotopes from water, but here’s what we know.

Iodine-131 and xenon-133 are gases and as such can be reduced or removed by carbon filtration.  The cesium can be removed by reverse osmosis.

Removing Radioisotopes and Fallout from Your Water

A reverse osmosis system will consist of the ro membrane itself and several stages of carbon filtration so this combination will protect your drinking water.

Ion exchange is another effective method but that would generally involve a water softener for your whole house.  If it is your intention to use this technology you would want to also investigate the best type of resin to use.  You can learn more here:

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/radionuclides.cfm

Now, I could be wrong, but what I am seeing is that these isotopes have relatively short half lives so they should not persist at elevated levels.  You can see here that they degrade pretty quickly and then become stable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission_products_(by_element)

What I suggest is that if you are in the path of the radioactivity that you immediately start using a kitchen water filter at minimum.  This would be your least expensive alternative.  If you already have a water filter I would immediately buy new filters.  These are much more effective than old filters.  A high quality carbon filter such as my Kitchen Defender will do a great deal to protect you.  Because the first stage consists of KDF and a catalytic carbon in granular form it will act as a maze that the water must pass through.

If you want to be certain of protection then you can use reverse osmosis.  I sell a 5 stage reverse osmosis system that is very effective.  You may see it at the Kitchen Defender link noted in the paragraph above.

What we have to do is to monitor this event – the entire Japanese nuclear disaster – to see how long it lasts.   As of this writing radiation is still leaking and so the event is not over.  You can get updates at this site:

The final thing I want to say is that just because high levels appear in rainwater does not mean those levels will appear in your drinking water.  Due to the short half lives of these isotopes they will be breaking down into lesser amounts by the time they arrive to you as drinking water.  On the other hand, the comments by the Physicians for Social Responsibility might be heeded: no amount is safe.

Stay out of the rain….

Yours in health,

Jim

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