Radiation detector project RadWatch will provide almost immediate information to the public

(NaturalNews) A University of California, Berkeley press release recently reported that state-of-the-art real-time radiation tracking equipment has been installed on its campus. Air samples are used for the real-time measurements, while the practice of analyzing milk, fish and other food source samples will continue as part of Berkeley's radiation tracking project called RadWatch.

In addition to having the latest and most sophisticated air detection equipment, which was recently placed on the campus' Etcheverry Hall, a website has been created that provides public access to the latest air radiation readings with no more than an hour lag between each reading to its posting. While it looks good so far, there are some reasons to be suspicious.

Suspicious comments, backgrounds and connections to RadWatch

The lead scientist in charge of this project, Kai Vetter, stated, "We are using state-of-the-art nuclear radiation detection instruments that can measure extremely small quantities of radioisotopes far before they pose any health risk. Being able to detect or measure radiation does not mean there's a health risk, and that is what we want the public to understand." (Emphasis added) (1)

Vetter happens to be the professor-in-residence of nuclear engineering. His RadWatch co-leader is Jasmina Vujic, who is also a nuclear engineering professor and the former chair of nuclear engineering. The rest of the staff consists of postdoctoral fellow Mark Bandstra, graduate student Ryan Pavlovsky and three undergraduate students.

The RadWatch group is part of BEARING (Berkeley Applied Research for the Imaging of Neutrons and Gamma-rays), which is a subdivision of Berkeley's longstanding affiliation with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which is the U.S. government's main nuclear weapons lab. Therefore, it can be assumed that the leaders of this group are known nuclear power and weapons industry insiders. (2)

The nuclear energy field constantly minimizes public health radiation hazards and what's coming out of Fukushima. Therefore, is it any wonder that the RadWatch FAQ page contains information such as: "The levels of radiation from Fukushima are much, much smaller than we encounter on a daily basis from natural sources and do not cause any measurable health effect on pregnant woman and the unborn." (3)

As usual, industry connected scientists regard toxic influences from man-made sources as negligible because one doesn't have to be rushed to the ER and will not drop dead immediately after consumption or exposure. To them, chronic low level exposure is considered irrelevant.

Discerning disagreement from independent researchers

Several sources of existing man-made radioactive particles and radiation include existing nuclear power plant facilities, outside of Fukushima, that actually leak from time to time; above ground nuclear bomb testing sites; hospitals' imagery and treatment radiation waste facilities; nuclear energy waste dump leaks; and, the least regarded of all, depleted uranium (DU).

Depleted uranium comes from reactor plant fuel sources that have expired as fuel. In order to not overburden waste facilities, some DU has been relegated to armor piercing munitions. It was once banned from military use because DU is not really completely depleted as it has a 4.5 billion year half-life and still has dangerous radiation emissions.

Just ask retired Army Major David Rourke, a Ph.D. scientist assigned to the impossible task of cleaning over 320 tons of radioactive DU residue in Iraq. Many Iraqi civilians have been seriously affected as were American soldiers, including Major Rourke and his staff. (4)

Many studies have claimed that any radioactive or radiation exposure above the normal existing elemental radiation is hazardous to our health. For example, the paper "False Alarm or Public Health Hazard: Chronic Low Dose Radiation Exposure" by Wolfgang Kohnlein and Rudi H. Nussbaum, both Ph.D.s, cites 48 other papers and studies that they used to arrive at their paper's conclusion that both somatic (physical) ailments and genetic damage for future generations has increased beyond tolerance during our atomic age. (5)

Sources for this article include:

(1) http://newscenter.berkeley.edu
(2) http://www.lanl.gov
(3) http://radwatch.berkeley.edu
(4) http://www.yesmagazine.org
(5) http://www.ippnw.org