Radiation Risk 'Almost Non-Existent' In WA, UW Expert Says

A trace of nuclear radiation measured by instruments in California poses no significant threat there, and the threat of radiation to people in Washington state is also "almost non-existent," a University of Washington scientist told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Monitors in Sacramento, Calif., detected a small amount of radioactive material from the earthquake-struck nuclear power plant in Japan, CNN reported on Friday, citing an official with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. The exact amounts were not available but were far less than what would be considered harmful to human health, the official told CNN. See CNN blog

An expert on airborne particles at UW's Atmospheric Sciences Department, Dan Jaffe, said that unlike the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, the crippled Japanese nuclear plants have emitted much less radiation. He said what radiation they have released will be diluted by up to 1 million times before arriving on the West Coast.

"So if you think about the air that's being experienced in that region, by the time it gets here, it will be so substantially diluted that I think the risk will be extremely low, almost non-existent," Jaffe said.

Jaffe said there are small amounts of radiation in our environment at all times. Any additional particles from Japan will likely be too small to pose any health risk, including those detected in Sacramento, he said.

"I'm surprised they were able to detect anything, so I think what that's telling us is they have very sensitive detectors for detecting radiation," Jaffe said.

"We've estimated what we call 'dilution factors' -- which is how much of the air in that region diluted by the time it gets here -- and those factors are anywhere from 10,000 to 1 million," Jaffe said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has air monitors up and down the West Coast, including four in Washington. As of noon Friday, the EPA reported no unusual radiation has been detected in our state.