jginnane

I've spent time online looking for radiation detectors, or, as they're known, "Geiger" counters. First -- the leftovers from the Cold War are not applicable, because they're designed to measure high doses occurring in wartime. To measure low doses you need modern, advanced equipment -- stuff that starts at ~$500 per machine (and needs periodic recalibration, too).

But there's still no documentation concerning acceptable long-term rates of accrual. (The Japanese plant workers wear dosage badges, which measure how much they've gotten in the period of time since the badge was activated.) They know when they've accumulated, say, 400 milliroentgens, they can't work again until the following month. (Or whatever the rules are.)

But we're talking about something else here. We're not nuclear plant workers, and we're not at war. How many cancers can we expect from being subjected to a slightly radioactive dashboard in a car over the period of ownership -- 3, six years? What is the risk of continuing exposure at the high-end of the "acceptable" daily figure? If you're one of those people who don't smoke, etc., you may feel that even a 0.01% chance of increased risk is unacceptable to your health, and that of your family. And that's why this whole situation is so awful. You don't even want products from these affected areas imported to the USA, further befouling your environment.

Remember Christine Christie, the former governor of NJ, who was appointed head of the EPA during the 9/11/2001 WTC disaster? She had the job of telling people in lower Manhattan it was safe to go out and breathe the asbestos dust. Turns out this was a lie. I would not accept the word of any governmental authority figure with respect to Fujiyama's released radiation until at least five years after his statement, when independent testing can prove his accuracy.