8/29/2011 Radioactive cesium in San Francisco Bay Area milk close to exceeding EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level

Source: ENENews
Date: August 29th, 2011 at 02:39 PM

UCB Milk Sampling, UC Berkeley, August 25, 2011:
The MDA was reduced considerably since the last test on August 11.
Milk with best buy date of August 22, 2011:

• Cesium-134 .047 Becquerels per liter (1.27 picocuries per liter)
• Cesium-137 .052 Bq/liter (1.41 pCi/l)

A total of 2.78 pCi/l of radioactive cesium was detected.
“EPA lumps these gamma and beta emitters together under one collective MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level], so if you’re seeing cesium-137 in your milk or water, the MCL is 3.0 picocuries per liter; if you’re seeing iodine-131, the MCL is 3.0; if you’re seeing cesium-137 and iodine-131, the MCL is still 3.0.” -Forbes.com