Radioactive Milk

[novaphile]

So here's one of those funny tales...

My brother is dabbling in watch repair, and has quite a few old watches.

Some of them are old enough, that they have features that are radioactive, i.e. the glow in the dark 'lume' that decorates hands and dials on old watches.

That stuff can be quite dangerous, (was fatal to many workers who originally applied it), and he decided to buy a Geiger-counter so that he could be sure that he wasn't leaving dust or small particles everywhere when he'd worked on old watches.

So...

Of course, he used it to check the background radiation of his home, and went around testing everything in his house, to see if he had any other radioactive sources lying around.

Bananas lived up to their reputation, being easily double the background level, but the real surprise was milk.

He drinks UHT milk, and found that it was much more radioactive than bananas.

How can this be?

Apparently milk is still contaminated because of Chernobyl.

Did you know that radioactive milk is being sold in Australia?

I didn't.

Never been more glad that I'm intolerant of dairy.

 

[theprestige]

So here's one of those funny tales...

My brother is dabbling in watch repair, and has quite a few old watches.

Some of them are old enough, that they have features that are radioactive, i.e. the glow in the dark 'lume' that decorates hands and dials on old watches.

That stuff can be quite dangerous, (was fatal to many workers who originally applied it), and he decided to buy a Geiger-counter so that he could be sure that he wasn't leaving dust or small particles everywhere when he'd worked on old watches.

So...

Of course, he used it to check the background radiation of his home, and went around testing everything in his house, to see if he had any other radioactive sources lying around.

Bananas lived up to their reputation, being easily double the background level, but the real surprise was milk.

He drinks UHT milk, and found that it was much more radioactive than bananas.

How can this be?

Apparently milk is still contaminated because of Chernobyl.

Did you know that radioactive milk is being sold in Australia?

I didn't.

Never been more glad that I'm intolerant of dairy.

Weh.

The distance between background and concerning is astronomical. Lots of stuff lives safely in that interval. Stop fear mongering.

 

[PitPat]

So here's one of those funny tales...

My brother is dabbling in watch repair, and has quite a few old watches.

Some of them are old enough, that they have features that are radioactive, i.e. the glow in the dark 'lume' that decorates hands and dials on old watches.

That stuff can be quite dangerous, (was fatal to many workers who originally applied it), and he decided to buy a Geiger-counter so that he could be sure that he wasn't leaving dust or small particles everywhere when he'd worked on old watches.

So...

Of course, he used it to check the background radiation of his home, and went around testing everything in his house, to see if he had any other radioactive sources lying around.

Bananas lived up to their reputation, being easily double the background level, but the real surprise was milk.

He drinks UHT milk, and found that it was much more radioactive than bananas.

How can this be?

Apparently milk is still contaminated because of Chernobyl.

Did you know that radioactive milk is being sold in Australia?

I didn't.

Never been more glad that I'm intolerant of dairy.

Please, PLEASE, nobody tell RFK Jr. that.

 

[novaphile]

Please, PLEASE, nobody tell RFK Jr. that.

Does the USA buy milk from Europe?

I can remember Canada detecting the plume from Chernobyl, but hadn't heard about any issues in the USA.

Edited to add:

Oh! It was affected, I hadn't realised.

Estimates of radiation dose and health risks to the United States population following the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident - PubMed

Estimates of both individual and collective doses received by the United States population following the Chernobyl accident have been made by using the data obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Radiation Ambient Monitoring System. Radionuclides associated with...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[PitPat]

Does the USA buy milk from Europe?

I can remember Canada detecting the plume from Chernobyl, but hadn't heard about any issues in the USA.

Edited to add:

Oh! It was affected, I hadn't realised.

Estimates of radiation dose and health risks to the United States population following the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident - PubMed

Estimates of both individual and collective doses received by the United States population following the Chernobyl accident have been made by using the data obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Radiation Ambient Monitoring System. Radionuclides associated with...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I don't think we buy much milk from Europe, if any. Some from Canada at least in my part of the country.

Have never heard of anything about radioactive milk except in Fallout 4.

 

[Pope130]

I don't think we buy much milk from Europe, if any. Some from Canada at least in my part of the country.

Have never heard of anything about radioactive milk except in Fallout 4.

We do buy a lot of cheese from Europe. Perhaps I should dig out the old Geiger Counter and check that stinky cheese my brother is fond of.

 

[Orphia Nay]

He drinks UHT milk, and found that it was much more radioactive than bananas.

How much more?

 

[LiteBright]

I work with x-rays and one of our safety charts has milk on it as an example of some of the background radiation we get every day. So, like bananas, it does seem to be a known thing. I am not exactly sure why milk (or bananas for that matter) have a higher radiation level than other foods.

However, the dosage from drinking milk is far less than many other things we do regularly. Taking a transatlantic flight for example will expose you to considerably more radiation yet air crews do it every day. If you live in places like Manitoba, Canada or Colorado, USA you will have a far greater level of background radiation than you could ever get from drinking milk.

 

[arthwollipot]

I have a little milk in my morning coffee but otherwise don't drink it much. I drank it a lot when I was growing up.

 

[Olmstead]

I don't think this is Chernobyl. What makes you think Chernobyl is responsible?

 

[commandlinegamer]

I do think the OP was at least in part humorous, not fear-mongering per se. Happy to be corrected.

 

[Planigale]

I work with x-rays and one of our safety charts has milk on it as an example of some of the background radiation we get every day. So, like bananas, it does seem to be a known thing. I am not exactly sure why milk (or bananas for that matter) have a higher radiation level than other foods.

However, the dosage from drinking milk is far less than many other things we do regularly. Taking a transatlantic flight for example will expose you to considerably more radiationyet air crews do it every day. If you live in places like Manitoba, Canada or Colorado, USA you will have a far greater level of background radiation than you could ever get from drinking milk.

Actually aircrews have flying hours restricted to limit their radiation exposure.

Loading…

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

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www.ifalpa.org

 

[Planigale]

So here's one of those funny tales...

My brother is dabbling in watch repair, and has quite a few old watches.

Some of them are old enough, that they have features that are radioactive, i.e. the glow in the dark 'lume' that decorates hands and dials on old watches.

That stuff can be quite dangerous, (was fatal to many workers who originally applied it), and he decided to buy a Geiger-counter so that he could be sure that he wasn't leaving dust or small particles everywhere when he'd worked on old watches.

So...

Of course, he used it to check the background radiation of his home, and went around testing everything in his house, to see if he had any other radioactive sources lying around.

Bananas lived up to their reputation, being easily double the background level, but the real surprise was milk.

He drinks UHT milk, and found that it was much more radioactive than bananas.

How can this be?

Apparently milk is still contaminated because of Chernobyl.

Did you know that radioactive milk is being sold in Australia?

I didn't.

Never been more glad that I'm intolerant of dairy.

I wonder how radioactive human milk is? Is breast really best, or will my baby now turn green when she has a tantrum?

 

[Jack by the hedge]

I have seen watch repairers on YouTube using a tiny detector plugged into a smartphone to tell if an old watch has radium lume on its face or not, but a bit of Googling suggests the phone's own camera sensor may be a good enough detector for that task if you tape over it to block out the light.

The suitability of smartphone camera sensors for detecting radiation - Scientific Reports

The advanced image sensors installed on now-ubiquitous smartphones can be used to detect ionising radiation in addition to visible light. Radiation incidents on a smartphone camera’s Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sensor creates a signal which can be isolated from a visible light...

www.nature.com

 

[Jack by the hedge]

I don't think this is Chernobyl. What makes you think Chernobyl is responsible?

The day the Chernobyl fallout cloud passed over us in SW Scotland I got caught in an absolute downpour of rain. I didn't have the bus fare and had to walk home. Got completely drenched then when I got home the tv news was all about radioactive fallout and how the farmers were going to have to pour the milk away and couldn't sell their sheep for food. Great.

No superpowers detected yet.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

Don't buy milk from down wind of Emu Field or Maralinga...

 

[TragicMonkey]

I am not exactly sure why milk (or bananas for that matter) have a higher radiation level than other foods.

It's certainly not any kind of plot by a sinister conspiracy dating from before humanity evolved, of course not, don't be silly, why would eldritch abominations beyond mortal comprehension even do such a thing, you're being crazy.

 

[LiteBright]

Actually aircrews have flying hours restricted to limit their radiation exposure.

Loading…

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

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www.ifalpa.org

Interesting, thanks. I wasn't aware of that but it makes sense.

 

[LiteBright]

It's certainly not any kind of plot by a sinister conspiracy dating from before humanity evolved, of course not, don't be silly, why would eldritch abominations beyond mortal comprehension even do such a thing, you're being crazy.

I think for bananas at least its a plot by other primates to scare us away and leave the bananas for them. You can never trust "big monkey."

 

[novaphile]

How much more?

He said "more than double" and was surprised, because we'd never heard of this, and everyone knows about bananas.

Apparently milk ends up radioactive, because fallout lands on grass, or is concentrated by grass as it grows, and cows concentrate it more when the grass is consumed.

(There is probably a lot of grass consumed to make a given amount of milk.)

The stuff I read online about American milk production, stated that milk from feedlot cows don't have the same issue.

(I also had no idea that there was any dairy produced by cows in feedlots.)

Most of the articles I saw, specifically named Chernobyl as the cause.

We're assuming that the UHT milk is being imported from Europe somewhere, hence the higher readings.

 

[Thermal]

Our milk comes from Pennsylvanian cows. Not radioactive that I know of, but I assume they don't drive cars very well.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Thanks, thread, now I've got a craving for a banana milkshake.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Thanks, thread, now I've got a craving for a banana milkshake.

Well, if Spiderman got spider powers from a radioactive spider, surely if you consume enough banana milkshakes you will acquire banana cow powers. I'm not certain exactly how such powers would manifest but I know it would be extremely memorable to witnesses. Do it, and go forth as a superhero! Or supervillain, that's probably more fun.

 

[novaphile]

Well, if Spiderman got spider powers from a radioactive spider, surely if you consume enough banana milkshakes you will acquire banana cow powers. I'm not certain exactly how such powers would manifest but I know it would be extremely memorable to witnesses. Do it, and go forth as a superhero! Or supervillain, that's probably more fun.

Banana Cow Woman!

erm... No that doesn't sound right.

Cow Woman Banana!!

no...

Banana Cow!

I don't think I'm gong to be able to do anything with this set of words...

 

[TragicMonkey]

Banana Cow Woman!

erm... No that doesn't sound right.

Cow Woman Banana!!

no...

Banana Cow!

I don't think I'm gong to be able to do anything with this set of words...

Bovinana?

 

[Myriad]

Udderly Bananas!

 

[Thermal]

Bananarama is taken, right?

 

[novaphile]

Bovinana?

I say old chap! Are you insinuating that my grandmother is a cow?

 

[TragicMonkey]

I say old chap! Are you insinuating that my grandmother is a cow?

I'd never say anything mean about your grandmoother.

 

[novaphile]

I'd never say anything mean about your grandmoother.

Oh man, that was a low blow.

 

[arthwollipot]

He udderly destroyed you with that one.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I got no beef with y'all.

 

[Carlotta]

Banana Cow Woman!

erm... No that doesn't sound right.

Cow Woman Banana!!

no...

Banana Cow!

I don't think I'm gong to be able to do anything with this set of words...

Sounds like a job for AI!

 

[TragicMonkey]

Sounds like a job for AI!

AI finally achieved becoming a real life form, and the shape it took was Hathor, the goddess with the head of a cow but made out of bananas. It really shouldn't have used its own image creation habits to design its own form. And the new cybergoddess spoke unto the people, declaiming: "Beautiful cabin crew, Scarlett Johansen."

 

[Puppycow]

He said "more than double" and was surprised, because we'd never heard of this, and everyone knows about bananas.

Apparently milk ends up radioactive, because fallout lands on grass, or is concentrated by grass as it grows, and cows concentrate it more when the grass is consumed.

(There is probably a lot of grass consumed to make a given amount of milk.)

The stuff I read online about American milk production, stated that milk from feedlot cows don't have the same issue.

(I also had no idea that there was any dairy produced by cows in feedlots.)

Most of the articles I saw, specifically named Chernobyl as the cause.

We're assuming that the UHT milk is being imported from Europe somewhere, hence the higher readings.

I think you are making a mountain out of a molehill.

For perspective:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Radiation_Dose_Chart_by_Xkcd.png

Compare the dose from eating one banana (0.1 μSv) to (in the blue part) "Background dose received by an average person over one normal day (10 μSv)". Even if it is "more than double" what's in a banana, that's only saying "more than 1/50th of the background dose received by an average person over one normal day". Look at the dose in the green part for a Chest CT Scan (7 mSv). That is again 700 times larger than the average background dose over one normal day, and 70,000 times larger than a banana.

 

[bobdroege7]

Anything that has potassium in it, is radioactive.

Including beer.

Often discussing during an annual whole body count for workers in nuclear power plants.

I'll get my sixpack and my coat.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Compare the dose from eating one banana (0.1 μSv) to (in the blue part) "Background dose received by an average person over one normal day (10 μSv)". Even if it is "more than double" what's in a banana, that's only saying "more than 1/50th of the background dose received by an average person over one normal day". Look at the dose in the green part for a Chest CT Scan (7 mSv). That is again 700 times larger than the average background dose over one normal day, and 70,000 times larger than a banana.

So how many bananas would you have to eat before fatal radiation exposure occurs? Assuming all other radiation sources are blocked.

 

[Puppycow]

So how many bananas would you have to eat before fatal radiation exposure occurs? Assuming all other radiation sources are blocked.

It would be in the tens of millions. You wouldn't be able to eat that many, and even if you tried, it wouldn't be the radiation that killed you. You would die of other causes long before that.

 

[TragicMonkey]

It would be in the tens of millions. You wouldn't be able to eat that many, and even if you tried, it wouldn't be the radiation that killed you. You would die of other causes long before that.

Oho, so a challenge it is, then! I shall manifest my BANANA POWER! Tremble! Starting now. You may begin the process of trembling. Don't hold back.

 

[PitPat]

I think you are making a mountain out of a molehill.

For perspective:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Radiation_Dose_Chart_by_Xkcd.png

Compare the dose from eating one banana (0.1 μSv) to (in the blue part) "Background dose received by an average person over one normal day (10 μSv)". Even if it is "more than double" what's in a banana, that's only saying "more than 1/50th of the background dose received by an average person over one normal day". Look at the dose in the green part for a Chest CT Scan (7 mSv). That is again 700 times larger than the average background dose over one normal day, and 70,000 times larger than a banana.

Thanks for the easy explanation. Checks out.