As with most on this site I imported a vehicle from Japan. The Deck van is documented in the thread It's Here. Sorry that I couldn't provide a link as I don't know how. Anyway's in that thread someone made a baseless claim that my van probably had the " Glow in the dark option". I was a little pee'd when he said it. So it got me thinking. Does Canada Customs check for radiation when imports from Japan come into the country? I don't know. Could I find out? Maybe. Do I own a geiger counter? No! Did I go right out and buy one? Get real! Am I paranoid like M****o? No, Negative, Not! Do I have a way of finding out and possibly making him look stupid? Yes! How you ask? Well I own a business that is just down from a pipeline inspection company. Do they have the ability to test for RADIATION? Yep. Can you guess what the results were? Would my Deck van have to be quarantined? The results were that the deck vans numbers came within 2% of my 2010 Chevy Dura max Diesel that was built in Canada. Shocking results. Did the test break the bank? Nope it cost me a case of premium beer! Was it worth it? Yep! I'm not trying to rub it in the members face but... I don't appreciate when people spew useless and ignorant comments for no reason. If the member in question wants a copy of these results for his own in house nuclear physicists to go over you can P.M me. The owner of the company had a little laugh when I asked him to perform the test and an even bigger one when he saw the vehicle in question. Anyway's it's all good when you own a vehicle that brings a smile to the face of all who see it...
Very good to know. I've been wondering about mine too since it came from Japan about 2 months ago. Thanks.
Yes anyone can easily test for background radiation with a $200 meter you can buy on ebay. Many everyday items have passive radiation like Bananas or what about sunlight itself?? http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2011/03/comparing-japans-radiation-release-to.html The problem is these basic devices don't test specifically for Radioactive Isotopes that were emitted when Fukushima Nuclear plant exploded (numerous times) such as iodine-131 or cesium-137, the latter of which has a half life of 30 years and 1 particle injested into your system can cause all sorts of health problems. Like I said, Cesium-137 has a half-life of about 30 years, so will take more than a century to decay by a significant amount. Living organisms treat cesium-137 as if it was potassium, and it becomes part of the fluid electrolytes and is eventually excreted. Cesium-137 is passed up the food chain. It can cause many different types of health problems. What about Strontium 90 with a half life of 29 years or Plutonium with a half life of 83 million years. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/03/21/134567288/radiation-by-the-numbers-isotopes-to-watch They found radioactive isotopes in Canada and USA in the water and milk shortly after the incident in March (here is 1 article but hundreds on google http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/28/radiation.us/index.html ), so if we can detect it here can you imagine how bad it is thousands of KMS away. Thank God we are in Canada because most of Japan is now a giant nuclear waste dump with the water and food contaminated permanently. The rich people have left Japan http://www.japan.org/archives/1426
$200.00 meter from ebay Ha Ha. The test that they did involved something a little more high tech than a toilet paper roll, an led light, two wires and a 9 volt battery. The owner of the device in question told me it has a retail value of $6700.00 and is used by many professionals in the field. I completely understand that radiation can't be taken lightly but.... We really don't know how much of the products we use on a daily basis have a component that was manufactured in Japan. I don't want to argue with anyone on here just report the info given to me. Concerning your questions, show me that your periodic table of elements aren't in other things found in our home or garage!!! As far as thanking God believe me I do on a regular basis. We are Blessed to live where we live in times like these.
They should make this type of testing you got done mandatory on all vehicles imported because I have seen some nice ones up for sale in Japan but then I check the address on google maps and they are less than 50 km from Fukushima. You truck probably came from a far enough away location and wasnt affected. It's still fun to tease you when you react like you do
I just wan't you to know that I get a lot of enjoyment coming up with sarcastic remarks. I'm not a princess by nature but some comments rip me. It just so happened you said one of them. I have alway's had a bit of a temper which served me well through 10 years of boxing. The place where the van came from was Tōkai, Aichi which on the map seems very south but as you said there were elevated readings everywhere. It was interesting getting the tests done. Up until this I knew very little about radiation or how to test for it. Thanks again for p#$$ing me off forcing me to prove you and your team of HIGHLY EDUCATED RUSSIAN NUCLEAR PHYSICISTS WRONG.
I found this graphic to be quite informative when illustrating relative levels of radioactivity: xkcd.com Bannanas are radioactive, sunlight is not (despite being a form of "radiation"). If the object in question is coated in any radioactive substance, then a geiger counter will absolutely detect it. If you detect radiation on your truck with a cheap meter, I would not suggest licking it to find out what isotope is present. Your skin does a darn fine job at blocking both alpha and beta radiation (free protons and electrons respectively), but will not do so well if you ingest these sources. Well it's ok, they were able to pull through once before, some time around 1945 or so. I'm sure these radioactive isotopes were in Canada and the USA for millions of years too. If you're really concerned, don't buy granite counter tops...these are cut from stone which is often quite high in radioactivity and is worse than normal since it is used as a food prep surface. Unfortunately in these situations, if a country openly discloses what's going on in full detail, the media goes into a frenzy to stir up fear (and ratings) in the masses. I tip my cap to Japan for being so open about it, just about any other nation would have done it's darndest to keep it hush hush. To make matters worse, these reactors were an old, crappy design, and were set to be decommissioned in a few months after the tsunami hit (would have gone unnoticed in a few months). This is now a huge step back for all nuclear power, despite newer designs being much safer (the new designs fail in the 'off' position, whereas the Japan and Chernobyl designs fail 'on'). Ironically, coal mining poses more radioactive exposure risk than uranium mining. /End Rant
