The fact that radioactive substances from Japan’s 2011 tsunami-caused nuclear disaster have been found along B.C.’s coast will undoubtedly raise some concerns, even though scientists assure us the traces are so minute, they cannot cause harm to humans or the marine ecosystem.
Radioactivity is scary stuff, and it might be hard for some to refrain from worrying, but we should spare some concern for the people in Japan who suffered — and still suffer — from the tsunami.
Following a major earthquake in March 2011, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima-Daiichi reactors, causing nuclear meltdowns that released radiation into the environment.
Speculation has abounded on what would happen when ocean currents brought that radiation to the western coast of North America.
A network headed by University of Victoria chemical oceanographer Jay Cullen has been monitoring the situation with the help of volunteers who gather seawater samples. A sample from Ucluelet was analyzed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, one of the partners in the network, and was found to contain traces of cesium spilled in the Fukushima-Daiichi accident.
A Woods Hole statement helps us understand the level of cesium in the Ucluelet sample:
“If someone were to swim for six hours a day every day of the year in water that contained levels of cesium twice as high as the Ucluelet sample, the radiation dose they would receive would still be more than one thousand times less than that of a single dental X-ray.”
It would take a vivid imagination to work up any level of panic over a dilution that small, but for people in Japan, especially in the area ravaged by the tsunami, the concerns are anything but imaginary.
The disaster left about 20,000 people dead and missing. More than 300,000 people were rendered homeless by the tsunami, and four years later, most are still living in temporary housing with little prospect of returning to the areas they called home.
Recovery will take years, and some villages that lay in the path of the tsunami will never be rebuilt. Japanese authorities are wrestling with the problem of disposing of millions of tonnes of debris. The Japanese economy will feel the negative effects of the disaster for years to come.
While it’s prudent to monitor our waters for radioactivity, we should not be unduly concerned about that aspect of the tsunami.
But we should not put out of our minds what happened in Japan. A huge earthquake could happen here, and some day it will.
In March, the province released a report, written by consultant Henry Renteria, that shows the province is falling behind on earthquake preparedness.
B.C. needs to make systemic and cultural changes to reverse a “long history of relative apathy” in preparing for a major earthquake, said Renteria, former head of California’s Office of Emergency Preparedness.
“The problem when you are living in earthquake country is that an earthquake is inevitable,” he told the Canadian Press this week.
“It is going to happen — it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”
While the government needs to improve its earthquake-readiness capabilities, the Japanese experience is a graphic reminder that individuals also need to be prepared. In the hours and days after a major disaster, emergency-response teams will be swamped; authorities would be focused on restoring public services. People would need to be as self-sufficient as possible until services and communications can be restored.
An infinitesimal trace of cesium in the seawater is not something to worry about. A major earthquake is.
