VANCOUVER - A slight increase in radioactivity in seaweed and rainwater has been detected along the West Coast but the expected hike poses no risk to human health, researchers announced Monday.
The researchers from Simon Fraser University said they found higher-than-normal levels of radioisotope iodine-131 along the B.C. coast, but at levels much lower than could pose any elevated risk of cancer to British Columbians, nuclear chemist Kris Starosta told reporters.
Starosta said there's no need for concern about the levels long-term in seaweed, shellfish or rainwater along the coast because of the short shelf-life of the radioactive material, which decays by half every eight days.
"If you compare it to the background, so radiation from other sources, these are really small quantities," Starosta said.
"That's the reason we believe there is no impact on health, because you get natural doses of radiation... higher than the dose of iodine-131 that we measured."
Ongoing testing for the isotope began March 16 in response to public concern that radiation could be carried across the Pacific Ocean to North America from Japan. On March 19 Health Canada officials announced that "minute" increases in radiological material had been detected in the atmosphere, but said at that time they posed no risk to the public -- a caution reiterated Monday.
Rainwater samples were collected by a team of researchers at the university's campus on Burnaby Mountain and in downtown Vancouver. Seaweed samples were collected at a North Vancouver seabus transit terminal.
Researchers said they will conduct tests in Barclay Sound, on Vancouver Island's west coast.
Starosta predicted the radioactive isotope would continue to be detected in B.C. until three to four weeks after officials quell the flow of radiation from the leaking nuclear reactor.
In Japan, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake shook the northeastern coast Monday, prompting a brief tsunami alert and further rattling an already fearful public.
At the failing Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, workers were trying to contain leaks of contaminated water even as they try to bring the plant back under control.
Officials believe the contaminated water has sent radioactivity levels soaring at the coastal complex and caused more radiation to seep into soil and seawater. Crews also found traces of plutonium in the soil outside of the complex on Monday, although officials insisted there was no threat to public health.
Fears that radiation has contaminated Japan's water supply even as far away as Tokyo, 220 kilometres southwest, have prompted a run on bottled water, leaving shelves high and dry of bottled water, food and medical supplies.
One B.C. family-owned water company has been swamped with orders from Japanese distributors.
Whistler Water has been selling water to Japan for the last two decades, but saw a huge spike in business since the March 11 quake.
"Every grocery chain in the country seems to be talking to our distributor right now to get product," said Chris Dagenais, a spokesman for the company, a subsidiary of water giant Polaris.
To date, Whistler Water has received orders from their distributor, Whistler Japan, for over two million bottles of Canadian water.
The company's 70 employees have had to work significant overtime to fill the requests. They have also received orders from various government and non-government relief organizations.
Dagenais said the real challenge will be getting the water to hard to reach areas in Japan.
"Ground transportation is in high, high demand and has suffered quite greatly due to devastation on highways, due to rolling blackouts throughout the country that are affecting train transport," he said.
"The port of Tokyo is apparently jam-packed with water, it's just that it's really difficult once it's in Japan to get it to where it needs to go."
So business is booming, but Dagenais said he honestly wishes they were not so busy.
"Doing volume at the expense of a natural disaster is not exactly a desirable thing," he said. "We're happy to be able to supply the water but not if it comes at the cost of devastation and loss of life."
Dagenais said the company has donated about 80,000 litres of water to Japanese relief efforts, and 10 cents from every domestic sale will go to the Canadian Red Cross.
Whistler Water's next shipment is scheduled to arrive in Tokyo and Kobe next week.
With files from the Associated Press
