Scientists test sick Alaska seals for radiation, page 5

reply to post by Artlicious

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They aren't saying if they have.

The email I got back from Dr. John Kelly (quoted in my OP) says basically the same thing as the article. They have the tissue and will be performing gamma spectroscopy on the tissues, which takes a few weeks.

I may email him back and ask if they are just now beginning the testing because the article was posted in late December and it iis now about three weeks past that date and thus entering the time in which the original article indicates as the time we should have the results of said tests.

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

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Keep us updated! This has been going on for nearly 6 months now and still no answer.. sounds like a cover up to me. I'm eager to read the reply you get.

Thanks!

UPDATE

Originally posted by kdog1982
I can already see where this is going

Inconclusive

Or how about turning weeks into months or even years?

Numerous government agencies and other organizations are involved in the investigation, which, according to NOAA, may require months or even years of data collection and analyses.

Seal disease investigation intensifies

Seals and walruses suffering from the mystery disease develop skin sores, usually on the hind flippers or face, and patchy hair loss. Some of the diseased mammals have labored breathing and appear lethargic.

Scientists have not yet identified a single cause for this disease, although tests indicate a virus is not the cause.

At necropsy, most of the affected animals have had skin lesions as well as fluid in the lungs, white spots on the liver, and abnormal growths in the brain. Some seals and walruses have undersized lymph nodes, which may indicate compromised immune systems.

They are trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

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Well,JC,I can only begin to expose the truth as far as past tests.

They know.

They are hiding it.

Lets begin with,say ,the nuclear test that they did at bikini atoll,shall we?

Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945. Its purpose was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval ships. Crossroads consisted of two detonations, each with a yield of 23 kilotons:[1] Able was detonated at an altitude of 520 feet (158 m) on July 1, 1946; Baker was detonated 90 feet (27 m) underwater on July 25, 1946. A third burst, Charlie, planned for 1947, was canceled primarily because of the Navy's inability to decontaminate the target ships after the Baker test. Crossroads Charlie was rescheduled as Operation Wigwam, a deep water shot conducted in 1955 off the California coast,.[2] The Crossroads tests were the fourth and fifth nuclear explosions conducted by the United States (following the Trinity test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). They were the first of many nuclear tests held in the Marshall Islands and the first to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, including a large press corps.

Only pigs and rats were used in the Baker test. All the pigs and most of the rats died. Radiation from a contaminated environment is continuous and cumulative. With the Able test, lethality was determined by proximity to the fireball and its pulse of radiation. With Baker, lethality was determined by the amount of time spent aboard contaminated ships. Several days elapsed before sailors were able to reboard the target ships where test animals were located; during that time the accumulated doses from the gamma rays produced by fission products became lethal for the animals.[92] Since much of the public interest in Crossroads had focused on the fate of the test animals, in September Admiral Blandy asserted that radiation death is not painful: "The animal merely languishes and recovers or dies a painless death. Suffering among the animals as a whole was negligible." This was clearly not true. While the well-documented suffering of Harry Daglian and Louis Slotin as they died of radiation injury at Los Alamos was still secret, the widely reported radiation deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not been painless. In 1908, Dr. Charles Allen Porter had stated in an academic paper, "the agony of inflamed X-ray lesions is almost unequaled in any other disease."[93]

en.wikipedia.org...

Yea,the animals died a painless death,how true of the government to say that,don't you agree?

And if you have time and are interested,check this out.
www.nuclearcrimes.org...
Peace!

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

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Just noticed your update.


Isn't a compromised immune system (among other things like skin legions, hair loss, etc) one of the key signs of high radiation sickness/poisoning ?

Originally posted by kdog1982
I can already see where this is going

Inconclusive

UPDATE:

Summary of findings: Scientists have conducted preliminary qualitative screening of a few tissue samples from both healthy and sick pinnipeds (ice seals and walruses) involved in this UME for possible radionuclide exposure. No radiation levels were found in these samples that would directly cause the symptoms seen in the pinnipeds. Test results show radiation levels are within the typical background range for Alaska

From " 2011 Northern Pinnipeds Unusual Mortality Event (UME) Preliminary Assessment of Radionuclide Exposure" found at National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Regioal Office

Inconclusive indeed...

In another document on the same page entitled " Northern Pinnipeds (Ice Seals and Walruses) Update: Unusual Mortality Event (UME) Investigation and Findings February 1, 2012" the following can be found:

We’ve received few reports of sick seals in Alaska since the end of November. In early January, three ringed seals were harvested in the North Slope Borough that had complete hair coats but very mild nodular lesions on their flippers that may suggest the disease is still present (otherwise the seals appeared healthy). Chukotka hunters didn’t report any sightings or harvest of sick and/or hairless seals in December 2011 and January 2012. There have been no additional reports of sick walruses during this time period.

It should be noted that weather conditions have been largely unsuitable for making observations in the Arctic and Bering Straight region during this time period. We’re hoping that with the arrival of spring there will be more opportunites for hunters to make observations and report any seals or walruses that appear sick or are acting abnormally.

So no significant new reports are coming in about additional diseased animals, but they also admit that weather conditions have been unfavorable for observations which to me means that there may very well be more animals affected, but that they are unnable to determine that due to the difficulties surrounding the weather.

Ther are several news articles out the on the web now, but they are all based on these two reports so there is not really any point scouring the news services, although if anyone would like to do so, please feel free.

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

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Going back to the news stories I ignored after reading the reports linked above I find that may e this ain't so "wrapped up" as I may have thought:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Preliminary tests appear to rule out radiation from Japan's tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant as the cause of mysterious deaths and illness that struck scores of Alaska seals last year, federal officials said on Friday.

...


"Part of the reason it doesn't rule it out is we need to do more in-depth tests for Cesium 137 and Cesium 134," Speegle said.

Emphasis mine

Story at Reuters

What in Hades were they checking for?

Speegle is one of the people I emailed back in January, but she did not respond.

I guess it's time to email Dr. John Kelley again and see of he has anything to add...

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

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Thanks for the update!

As far as testing goes,it seems to me that it wouldn't take this long.

Is there a medical test to determine exposure to cesium-137? Yes, there are several. However, they are not routinely available in a doctor's office, because they require special laboratory equipment. Some tests can measure the amount of radionuclides in urine, or in fecal samples, even at very low levels. A technique called "whole-body counting" can detect gamma radiation emitted by cesium-137 in the body. A variety of portable instruments can directly measure cesium-137 on the skin or hair. Other techniques include directly measuring the level of cesium-137 in soft tissues samples from organs or from blood, bones, and milk.

epa.gov...

So,if they have portable units,why not go to the scene of the alleged crime?

Follow up email to Drs. John Kelley and Douglas Dasher, CCed to Julie Speegle:

Good morning,

Having read your report "2011 Northern Pinnipeds Unusual Mortality Event (UME) Preliminary Assessment of Radionuclide Exposure," I have a few questions:

1) Are Cs134/137 the only radionuclides that were tested for?

2) What specific tests were performed? For example in Texas to complete a well permit in certain counties, you have to test for radionuclides as can be seen at the following link:

How to Conduct Radionuclide Testing for Well Completion Interim Approval

3) What additional tests (or is the Gamma Ray Spectoscropy the only test) are being performed and when are results from those anticipated?

Thank you for your time and consideration,

(link formatted to ATS forum code for posting purposes)

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

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Just received the following reply:

I am replying to your message of March 8 regarding seal mortality investigations:


1) Yes. For the atmospheric release these radionuclides are the principal ones detected and typically represent the greatest long-term health risk for sites distant from Fukushima. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, International Atomic Energy Agency and others are using these two radionuclildes to identify the Fukushima fallout. The iodine 131 released has decayed to below detection limits.

2) Texas is complying with the EPA drinking water analysis requirements for certain classes of drinking water systems. Test are for gross alpha and beta, looking principally at naturally occurring radionuclides. If levels exceed a certain value then other radionuclide test are run. While this testing is applicable to groundwater used for drinking it is not applicable to the Fukushima atmospheric testing.

3) Only gamma analysis is being done at this point. If we find levels of a human health or ecological concern then other radionuclides, such as plutonium could potentially be analyzed.

John Kelley and
Doug Dasher

--
John J. Kelley, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Marine Science
School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775-7220

Source is my email inbox.

So they are only performing gamma spectroscopy and not looking any further unless something shows in those results.

Sounds like a way to sidestep even looking for alpha emitters. As can be seen in this post by zworld in the megathread, alpha emitters are much more dangerous and difficult to detect.

Forgive me if I am mistaken, but the absence of the various Cs isotopes does not negate the possibility of transuranics, or does it?

UPDATE:

Illness plaguing seals and walruses brings disease hunters to Alaska

Although the skin ailments that appear to be affecting seals and walruses in Alaska have a generic name -- ulceratitive dermatitus disease syndrome -- there are many unanswered questions about the illnesses. Scientists and hunters here and in Russia want to better understand what's causing the sicknesses and how concerned about them they should be.

For example, while skin ulcers and other conditions -- hair loss, lethargy, oozing sores, bloody mucous, congested lungs -- are affecting seals and walruses, it's not known if the two species are suffering from the same sickness. And although much studying has been done to determine whether it's the result of a virus or radiation, and no tests have linked these origins to the illness, it's not yet known what the root cause is. Toxins and environmental factors, like harmful algae blooms and thermal burns, are under consideration. As is whether allergy, hormone or nutritional problems might play a role.

So far the disease has mainly affected seals (ringed and bearded) and walruses. There are a number of similarities to the symptoms being reported and they also coincide with what is known about radiation sickness in humans but according to news reports and emails I have received from one of the doctors performing the tests, no radionuclides have been found.

That being said, they are only testing for isotopes of cesium (see my previous update which include the email I received from D. John Kelley) and no other contaminant. To me this still does not exclude the possibility of other radioactive contaminants due to the different tests needed to identify those other components of fallout, for example, plutonium; which requires an entirely different test to detect.

Perhaps with the new influx of scientists, more information will be forthcoming.

From a post I made on December 29:

So looking up the food chain from seals, we have polar bears (which haven't been symptomatic), sharks and orca are probably eating seal also.

UPDATE:

Polar bears have symptoms of mystery disease: U.S. agency

Nine polar bears from the Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were found with patchy hair loss and oozing sores on their skin, similar to conditions found in diseased seals and walruses, the agency said in a statement.

Unlike the sickened seals and walruses, the affected polar bears seem otherwise healthy, said Tony DeGange, chief of the biology office for the USGS's Alaska Science Center. There had been no deaths among polar bears, he said.

Ok, but we've been told over and over again that it's not radiation, nor is it a virus...

Preliminary studies showed that radiation poisoning is not the cause, temporarily ruling out a theory that the animals were sickened by contamination from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.

emphasis mine

So is it back on the table?

From the most recent communication I had from Dr. John Kelley, they were only testing for the cesium isotopes and, unless there were positive results, were not going to even bother looking for any other radionuclides.

So we now have a disease which mimics radiation sickness that is being seen across at least three different species; seals (ringed, bearded, and ribbon (according to the linked article)), walruses, and now polar bears.

I am really curious to find out what the cause of this all is...

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

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Hey Jaded. Thanks for the updates. Scary symptoms there. Same as the day after Hiroshima... in sea life, NE of Japan.

Perhaps with the new influx of scientists, more information will be forthcoming.

Considering the media blackout on what if any rads at all are not being reported in the main stream, I would not hold my breath for those results.

Chris Rock put it best:

The Gov. or "experts" or media always tell us:, " We're talking to some people, we're looking for some stuff, we're figurin' it all out... and we'll get back to ya."

Edit: Also, they always release new information in the form of "reports". Have you noticed that? Our eyes automatically glaze over and we believe. We have been indoctrinated since youth in the education system to trust what reports say. The tool they used to subjugate our minds was "the Book Report". Remember?

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