Radiation Preparedness

I've got a family to protect and be concerned about. I have a budget, so I can't just go out and start buying Geiger counters, excessive water, excessive food, iodine, etc. etc., however, as stated, I have a family to protect and I need to know when I need to "activate" any plans beyond basic preparedness.

Mods, if this should be somewhere else, please move.

I wanted to start this thread to accomplish several tasks for members:

1.) Where to obtain accurate radiation levels in your local area. If not available, how to go about acquiring a reasonably priced Geiger counter?

2.) A discussion on contaminated food and water supplies. Is there any way for the "average Joe" to test his own food and water? If unacceptable levels of radiation are found, what are the options?

3.) Home preparation techniques

4.) Other topics

I will attempt to keep the second post up to date as a summary.

Placeholder for summary

I touched upon this recently in another thread. In short, yes, I am concerned about radiation from this event, possibly more for my children and my grandchildren, but maybe in the immediate future. By immediate future I am thinking of 12, maybe 18 months. This will be a slow moving crisis, as the events of the last 4 weeks have clearly shown.
Despite my concerns, I will not be buying bottled water or storing canned and non perishable food items. If contamination is expected to be widespread and in harmful levels, then drinking all the bottled water and sealed food in the world will not change the fact that you will continue to be exposed to the self same contaminants. They will be present in the water you bathe with, the rainfall and even the ground outside that you will inevitably have to walk upon in time.
Speaking of preparedness for radiation is useless, because in practical terms there is very little you can do to stave off something you cannot see, smell, or hear. The amounts that people will be exposed to outside of Japan - and definitely outside of Asia - will not be enough to cause radiation sickness, so there is no need to stock up on medicines that are used to treat cases of extreme exposure. Indeed I would advise any over zealous ATS members to refrain from doing just that, as you may well cause some nasty and unneccessary side effects.
While there is no radiation sickness, no skin lesions for anyone not in the vicinity of Fukishima, it may well be enough to cause you a cancerous lung or bowel tumour a few years down the line elsewhere, but who is to say you would not have contracted that self same cancer regardless? I think that this is what TEPCO are hoping will happen and to be honest it seems realistic enough to me.
The usual "Oh well" and carry on regardless. As I said earlier, it is my children and grandchilden I fear for as this will continue to impact us all for many years to some.

In my mind, there are 2 types of preparedness in this case, short-term and long-term.

Short-term:

1.) I need to know how to test food/water for radiation, how do I go about doing this?
2.) I need to know safety levels PRIOR to the EPA changing them
3.) I need to know how to get accurate readings in my area, do I need a Geiger counter or not (i.e. is the Gov't ever going to tell us the truth if readings start spiking)
4.) How do I prepare my home for a short-term radiological event?

Long-term:
If food/water/radiation levels start spiking and maintain an elevated dangerous status, then it isn't just "oh well" and keep on living, I need to protect my wife and kids. Serious serious decisions then need to be made, like, how do I quickly get out of the country and where do I go? Trade winds tell me that airborne radiation shouldn't make it to the Southern hemisphere, but what about ocean currents? I think the east coast of South America looks inviting, what country would be willing to take an immigrate? Where would a US person be most welcome? How much is it going to cost me?

I don't want to fear-monger, but I need to get my contingency plans together.

Here is a list of resource with links to help[ you understand and prepare for the current nuclear emergency:

pstuph.wordpress.com...

Click here for more information.

reply to post by Finalized


Someone as freaked out about this should look at the french models for radioactive fall out. By there account the entire globe will be blanketed with radiation so unless you have a bunker somewhere you'll be basically screwed IF that is how it ends up.

Also if the Japanese are going to dump their radioactive water in the ocean as a long term thing, there basically also might not be anywhere to flea. Honestly, I wouldn't waste the money or energy stocking up at the moment.

Freaked out preparing/thinking about contingency plans. I don't want to pull an ostrich and then the SHTF; I'm trying to educate myself, and possibly others, about options/methods.

Read something about leveraging film to check for radiation, is anyone familiar with that method?