Avoiding Radiation Exposure
One of my cousins is working in Tokyo. When my boyfriend heard about the explosion at one of the nuclear power plants, he wrote several emails to my cousin and I've compiled them into this post in case anyone wants to forward to their friends and family. Even here in the United States, I live within 15 miles of a nuclear power plant in NH so it was good information for me to learn too. (It's about 50 miles north of Boston.) If you have any corrections or additions, please let us know!
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I know radiation can be a little scary, so I wanted to let you know it can be fine if you follow a few steps to minimize exposure. My father was an engineer at a nuclear lab all my life, so this info comes with a bit of personal knowledge. While he was at the lab, they had a small plutonium spill, that they cleaned up. I heard all about it. His job was to build plants to process nuclear waste. The important thing is to avoid dust, clean everything, and put the waste into sealed plastic bags. Many people have been exposed to quite a bit of radiation. The secret is to limit exposure as much as possible. It doesn't stick around in the air forever. It's mostly in the dust. So if the reactor does melt down, depending on which way the wind blows from the nuclear plant, your goal will be to limit exposure.
Unless you get some weird weather patterns, the prevailing winds should carry any radiation to the east and out to sea. I would expect California and Hawaii to receive more exposure than Tokyo. But if the winds should change and Tokyo gets hit with fallout, you want to be ready.
Radiation
Think of radiation like a highly contagious virus. WASH YOUR HANDS all the time. Wash everything you take outside. Use a paper towel to turn off the water, and dispose of the paper towel in a plastic bag. Don't touch your face. Take LOTS OF SHOWERS. SHOWER AS SOON AS YOU GET HOME. If there is a shower at work, shower when you get to work.
Beta and Gamma will go through your body. Reducing exposure to them is good, but difficult. It takes a foot or two of concrete to fully stop gamma, which is why you should stay in a concrete or brick building. Staying underground in the basement is also better than being above ground. Basements also eliminate windows, which allow beta and gamma to pass. However, beta and gamma are not as dangerous as the alpha particle given off by plutonium.
Plutonium is the material you really need to worry about, because it emits the alpha particle, which can be stopped by a sheet of paper. This is actually a bad thing, because once you inhale or ingest it, it gets stuck in your body and can't get back out. Therefore, your objective is to make sure as few alpha particles get into your body as possible.
Alpha particles like to attach themselves to dust particles. So, the most dangerous substance becomes dust. Note, it is difficult to clean plutonium from a surface. So the more things you can throw away the better.
Iodine
If you go out, get to a drug store and try to find some Potassium Iodide (KI) tablets. This will save your thyroid glands since the thyroid absorbs iodine. If you can fill your body up with non-radioactive iodine, then your thyroid won't absorb the radioactive iodine. Radioactive iodine is destructive, but has a very short half life, so if you take iodine for a while you will be fine. Regular table salt is often iodized but there's not enough iodine to prevent absorption of radioactive iodine. Maybe it's still worth a shot to eat lots of salt if you can't find KI pills. According to Wikipedia, all but one isotope have half-lives of less than 60 days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_iodine
N95 Respirator Mask
If you get to a drug store or hardware store, try to find an N95 mask like this: http://tinyurl.com/4v7kgeg
Hardware stores are some of the best locations. The respirator won't block the gamma or beta rays, but it will block the plutonium particles, which can be stopped with a sheet of paper. Plutonium will attach itself to a dust particle. The N95 mask/respirator will block these. Be sure to get the N95. The surgical masks that are often worn by sick people in Japan and China aren't effective against dust. Throw the mask away after EVERY USE. Seal it in a plastic bag. NEVER use the mask twice. It collects dust on the outside, which will be radioactive. Wash your hands after handling the mask. ALWAYS wear an N95 respirator when outdoors.
Clothing and Going Outside
Every time you come back from being outside, take your clothes off in the shower, with the water off. Put them into a plastic garbage bag, and then seal it. Turn on the water, and wash your shower, then shower. Sometime in the future, drop your clothes at the laundry, don't wash them yourself.
Try to wear cotton as much as possible. It doesn't absorb the particles nearly as easily. In fact, I wouldn't wear a suit to work, and if you must wear a tie, you might want to wash it out with water each night.
Be sure to wipe your feet and shoes off with a paper towel which you throw away in a sealed plastic bag when you are finished.
When you go to work, take a complete change of clothes (this includes shoes, socks, and underwear, especially shoes and socks) with you to work in a sealed plastic bag, and change into your work clothes once you get to the office. Put your commuter clothes into a different bag, that is clearly marked commuter clothes, and seal it. If you can afford the money, simply throw away your commuter clothes, every day. You probably don't want to throw away your commuter shoes; shoes are expensive. However keep them in a sealed plastic bag when at work. If you can get people in the office to put plastic bags over their shoes upon entering the office, before heading to the bathroom to change, this would do a lot to reduce the amount of radioactive dust that gets tracked into the office. Remember to put the plastic bag into another sealed plastic bag, and discard it.
When I say sealed, a ziplock is probably good. Be sure to wash your hands BEFORE and AFTER sealing the bag. The other option is to use a large plastic garbage bag, and wrap tape around the top of the bag. This is the first half of the standard procedure at the lab. They then use a hot knife to try to melt the plastic closed as much as possible.
The other good technique to use when changing, is to take a large plastic garbage bag, spread it on the floor, step into it, and disrobe, letting all of your commuter clothes fall into it. Seal the bag. Take a shower. Then put on your suit for the day. Leave your suit at work. Put on fresh clothes for the trip home, and repeat the process as soon as you get home. At the lab, the only real difference, is that they also put on rubber gloves. You could wear surgical gloves for the commute. They then have someone wrap all the openings of their clothing with tape. Note, they are wearing overalls designed to be taped shut. Finally, there is your head/ hair. If you can find some sort of a disposable shower cap like item or hood for your hair, that would be extremely helpful. Since your hair becomes oily throughout the day, dust is more likely to stick to your hair than other parts of your body. So, covering your head should help a lot.
When commuting to and from work, rubber rain boots would be better, as they wouldn't trap as much dust, and can be washed more effectively, than sneakers or leather shoes. Remember, cotton tends to be better than other synthetics. However, if you can't throw away your commuter clothes consider wearing a rubber rain coat, and rubber rain pants for commuting.
Staying Inside
Try to stay inside a brick or concrete building. A building without a ventilation system will be better. Be sure to keep the windows closed, and tape any gaps in the windows. At home, be sure to seal all of your windows using tape. You can also use large pieces of plastic and tape over the windows. Remember, you are trying to seal everything to stop alpha particles.
Rain
If it happens to rain soon, that will clean the particles from the air. Then you just need to worry about wiping off your shoes and washing your hands. Oh, and if it rains, don't go outside. All of the radioactive material will be in the rain water. But after the rain, most of the risk will be gone. However, be sure to continue wearing your rubber rain boots and respirator when outside.
Food
The theme is minimizing exposure to dust. This applies to food as well. You are directly ingesting the food so keeping it clean is even more important. The easiest and best way is to stick with canned and pre-packaged food. Avoid food that sits exposed to the air. No fruit, vegetables, bread, fish, etc. Also no milk since the cows will eat contaminated grass and the contamination will build up in their bodies. Limit yourself to canned and pre-packed food. Rice is good, but use bottled water.
Water
I think Tokyo gets drinking water from four rivers.
http://www.c40cities.org/bestpractices/water/tokyo_waterworks.jsp You should stock up on bottled water, or fill bottles with city water in advance. Once the radioactive particles start to settle out of the air, they will settle into the surface water, particularly once it rains. The website says that the water is filtered and that sedimentation is used. This is probably good enough for showering. However, you don't want to be drinking it for the first couple of weeks. I know the water supply is already disrupted. Just do the best you can. That is what avoiding radiation is all about. Just doing the best you can. Keeping everything perfectly clean is nearly impossible.
The head of your company could declare the lobby as a decontamination area, and rent portable showers. Men on one side, women on the other. Strip off your commuting clothes, step into the shower. Change into clean clothes, etc.
That really isn't feasible for you. When you turn on the faucet, with contaminated hands, the faucet will become contaminated. Then you wash your hands. You then need to turn off the faucet. In this case, use a paper towel. You could have used a paper towel to turn it on as well. But, regardless of how careful you are, you don't have the resources to keep everything perfectly clean. Your objective is to simply do the best you can, and minimize your exposure to radiation. Remember, the body can handle some radiation. It is not as if being exposed to the smallest dose will kill you. This is not smallpox or ebola.
You won't ever succeed in eliminating all of the contamination. Your objective is to simply reduce it as much as possible. If your windows seal well, then don't worry about them. Definitely get a respirator, and put something over your hair when you are outside. Wipe, wash, and bag your shoes before going into your house. Wash your hands all the time. Don't touch your face.
Finally, tell anyone you know NOT TO SMOKE!! I think the alpha particle attaches itself to the the smoke particles, which people inhale into their lungs. If people must smoke, they must do it inside. ABSOLUTELY NO SMOKING OUTSIDE.
I know the email sounds a little scary. Radiation is a little scary because it is invisible. But it isn't too bad if you know how to deal with it.
-----
I know radiation can be a little scary, so I wanted to let you know it can be fine if you follow a few steps to minimize exposure. My father was an engineer at a nuclear lab all my life, so this info comes with a bit of personal knowledge. While he was at the lab, they had a small plutonium spill, that they cleaned up. I heard all about it. His job was to build plants to process nuclear waste. The important thing is to avoid dust, clean everything, and put the waste into sealed plastic bags. Many people have been exposed to quite a bit of radiation. The secret is to limit exposure as much as possible. It doesn't stick around in the air forever. It's mostly in the dust. So if the reactor does melt down, depending on which way the wind blows from the nuclear plant, your goal will be to limit exposure.
Unless you get some weird weather patterns, the prevailing winds should carry any radiation to the east and out to sea. I would expect California and Hawaii to receive more exposure than Tokyo. But if the winds should change and Tokyo gets hit with fallout, you want to be ready.
Radiation
Think of radiation like a highly contagious virus. WASH YOUR HANDS all the time. Wash everything you take outside. Use a paper towel to turn off the water, and dispose of the paper towel in a plastic bag. Don't touch your face. Take LOTS OF SHOWERS. SHOWER AS SOON AS YOU GET HOME. If there is a shower at work, shower when you get to work.
Beta and Gamma will go through your body. Reducing exposure to them is good, but difficult. It takes a foot or two of concrete to fully stop gamma, which is why you should stay in a concrete or brick building. Staying underground in the basement is also better than being above ground. Basements also eliminate windows, which allow beta and gamma to pass. However, beta and gamma are not as dangerous as the alpha particle given off by plutonium.
Plutonium is the material you really need to worry about, because it emits the alpha particle, which can be stopped by a sheet of paper. This is actually a bad thing, because once you inhale or ingest it, it gets stuck in your body and can't get back out. Therefore, your objective is to make sure as few alpha particles get into your body as possible.
Alpha particles like to attach themselves to dust particles. So, the most dangerous substance becomes dust. Note, it is difficult to clean plutonium from a surface. So the more things you can throw away the better.
Iodine
If you go out, get to a drug store and try to find some Potassium Iodide (KI) tablets. This will save your thyroid glands since the thyroid absorbs iodine. If you can fill your body up with non-radioactive iodine, then your thyroid won't absorb the radioactive iodine. Radioactive iodine is destructive, but has a very short half life, so if you take iodine for a while you will be fine. Regular table salt is often iodized but there's not enough iodine to prevent absorption of radioactive iodine. Maybe it's still worth a shot to eat lots of salt if you can't find KI pills. According to Wikipedia, all but one isotope have half-lives of less than 60 days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_iodine
N95 Respirator Mask
If you get to a drug store or hardware store, try to find an N95 mask like this: http://tinyurl.com/4v7kgeg
Hardware stores are some of the best locations. The respirator won't block the gamma or beta rays, but it will block the plutonium particles, which can be stopped with a sheet of paper. Plutonium will attach itself to a dust particle. The N95 mask/respirator will block these. Be sure to get the N95. The surgical masks that are often worn by sick people in Japan and China aren't effective against dust. Throw the mask away after EVERY USE. Seal it in a plastic bag. NEVER use the mask twice. It collects dust on the outside, which will be radioactive. Wash your hands after handling the mask. ALWAYS wear an N95 respirator when outdoors.
Clothing and Going Outside
Every time you come back from being outside, take your clothes off in the shower, with the water off. Put them into a plastic garbage bag, and then seal it. Turn on the water, and wash your shower, then shower. Sometime in the future, drop your clothes at the laundry, don't wash them yourself.
Try to wear cotton as much as possible. It doesn't absorb the particles nearly as easily. In fact, I wouldn't wear a suit to work, and if you must wear a tie, you might want to wash it out with water each night.
Be sure to wipe your feet and shoes off with a paper towel which you throw away in a sealed plastic bag when you are finished.
When you go to work, take a complete change of clothes (this includes shoes, socks, and underwear, especially shoes and socks) with you to work in a sealed plastic bag, and change into your work clothes once you get to the office. Put your commuter clothes into a different bag, that is clearly marked commuter clothes, and seal it. If you can afford the money, simply throw away your commuter clothes, every day. You probably don't want to throw away your commuter shoes; shoes are expensive. However keep them in a sealed plastic bag when at work. If you can get people in the office to put plastic bags over their shoes upon entering the office, before heading to the bathroom to change, this would do a lot to reduce the amount of radioactive dust that gets tracked into the office. Remember to put the plastic bag into another sealed plastic bag, and discard it.
When I say sealed, a ziplock is probably good. Be sure to wash your hands BEFORE and AFTER sealing the bag. The other option is to use a large plastic garbage bag, and wrap tape around the top of the bag. This is the first half of the standard procedure at the lab. They then use a hot knife to try to melt the plastic closed as much as possible.
The other good technique to use when changing, is to take a large plastic garbage bag, spread it on the floor, step into it, and disrobe, letting all of your commuter clothes fall into it. Seal the bag. Take a shower. Then put on your suit for the day. Leave your suit at work. Put on fresh clothes for the trip home, and repeat the process as soon as you get home. At the lab, the only real difference, is that they also put on rubber gloves. You could wear surgical gloves for the commute. They then have someone wrap all the openings of their clothing with tape. Note, they are wearing overalls designed to be taped shut. Finally, there is your head/ hair. If you can find some sort of a disposable shower cap like item or hood for your hair, that would be extremely helpful. Since your hair becomes oily throughout the day, dust is more likely to stick to your hair than other parts of your body. So, covering your head should help a lot.
When commuting to and from work, rubber rain boots would be better, as they wouldn't trap as much dust, and can be washed more effectively, than sneakers or leather shoes. Remember, cotton tends to be better than other synthetics. However, if you can't throw away your commuter clothes consider wearing a rubber rain coat, and rubber rain pants for commuting.
Staying Inside
Try to stay inside a brick or concrete building. A building without a ventilation system will be better. Be sure to keep the windows closed, and tape any gaps in the windows. At home, be sure to seal all of your windows using tape. You can also use large pieces of plastic and tape over the windows. Remember, you are trying to seal everything to stop alpha particles.
Rain
If it happens to rain soon, that will clean the particles from the air. Then you just need to worry about wiping off your shoes and washing your hands. Oh, and if it rains, don't go outside. All of the radioactive material will be in the rain water. But after the rain, most of the risk will be gone. However, be sure to continue wearing your rubber rain boots and respirator when outside.
Food
The theme is minimizing exposure to dust. This applies to food as well. You are directly ingesting the food so keeping it clean is even more important. The easiest and best way is to stick with canned and pre-packaged food. Avoid food that sits exposed to the air. No fruit, vegetables, bread, fish, etc. Also no milk since the cows will eat contaminated grass and the contamination will build up in their bodies. Limit yourself to canned and pre-packed food. Rice is good, but use bottled water.
Water
I think Tokyo gets drinking water from four rivers.
http://www.c40cities.org/bestpractices/water/tokyo_waterworks.jsp You should stock up on bottled water, or fill bottles with city water in advance. Once the radioactive particles start to settle out of the air, they will settle into the surface water, particularly once it rains. The website says that the water is filtered and that sedimentation is used. This is probably good enough for showering. However, you don't want to be drinking it for the first couple of weeks. I know the water supply is already disrupted. Just do the best you can. That is what avoiding radiation is all about. Just doing the best you can. Keeping everything perfectly clean is nearly impossible.
The head of your company could declare the lobby as a decontamination area, and rent portable showers. Men on one side, women on the other. Strip off your commuting clothes, step into the shower. Change into clean clothes, etc.
That really isn't feasible for you. When you turn on the faucet, with contaminated hands, the faucet will become contaminated. Then you wash your hands. You then need to turn off the faucet. In this case, use a paper towel. You could have used a paper towel to turn it on as well. But, regardless of how careful you are, you don't have the resources to keep everything perfectly clean. Your objective is to simply do the best you can, and minimize your exposure to radiation. Remember, the body can handle some radiation. It is not as if being exposed to the smallest dose will kill you. This is not smallpox or ebola.
You won't ever succeed in eliminating all of the contamination. Your objective is to simply reduce it as much as possible. If your windows seal well, then don't worry about them. Definitely get a respirator, and put something over your hair when you are outside. Wipe, wash, and bag your shoes before going into your house. Wash your hands all the time. Don't touch your face.
Finally, tell anyone you know NOT TO SMOKE!! I think the alpha particle attaches itself to the the smoke particles, which people inhale into their lungs. If people must smoke, they must do it inside. ABSOLUTELY NO SMOKING OUTSIDE.
I know the email sounds a little scary. Radiation is a little scary because it is invisible. But it isn't too bad if you know how to deal with it.