Radiation in beef and on ground?

When these particles enter the body, the accumulate. You take in xx grams of radioactive particles today, tomorrow, you take in yy grams, and so forth - it all accumulates and adds up. Naturally, some particles exit the body later through the other end, but some, in the lungs especially, never entirely leave.

The two most threatening are radioactive iodine and cesium because they spread in large amounts over a relatively large area. Iodine has virtually disappeared by now because of its short halflife. And cesium, despite having a halflife of 30 years, stays in the human body for just a few weeks or months. Other dangerous radioactive particles have not made it outside of the evacuation zone in any relevant amounts. Among them are some that stay in the body virtually forever. But iodine and cesium basically decay or leave the body within a relatively short time. They do not remain in the lungs, either. I am not saying that they are harmless. I just want to add some additional information to the "they accumulate" statement.

I'd just like to point out that it depends on your definition of "threatening."

It's just that iodine and cesium are easy to detect, while it takes months to detect things like strontium that can even be more threatening depending on your definition. That is why we only get to be informed test results for iodien and cesium.

Strontium has not been detected outside of the evacuation zone but has been detected right outside the plant premises, although according to the media, in harmless amount.

And again, there are many commoners near the evacuation area who have indeed had test results showing that radioactive substances has remained in his/her body.

So it's not that anyone is writing anything misleading. It's a matter of how you want to look at it.

By the way though, now that it's Atomic Bomb memorial time, at least in Japan, we get to hear a lot of stories on Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and a lot of witnesses claim that some got ill or died while others haven't and we don't really know what made the difference.

So at least we can say that even if you fail to avoid radioactivity, it doesn't automatically mean that you are doomed.

Peath on earth and good health to all.