This was the post: going bananas over radioactivity in the Bakken. When you get to the link, scroll down to the original post. I was the very first "blogger" to use "bananas" to compare the amount of radioactivity in those Bakken socks that newspaper reporters were going all ga-ga over.
Now, here it is, the third page of the "Review" section of this weekend's edition of The Wall Street Journal and taking up practically the whole page: A Radiation Reality Check. From bananas to bricks, radioactivity is everywhere -- but it's nothing to be afraid of.
By the way, my blog did a better job than The WSJ explaining exactly how much "radioactivity" there was in a banana. Somewhere along the way, The WSJ reporter got sidetracked in the gee whiz stuff.
From the article:
Do you believe, as I used to, that radioactivity is very rare and very dangerous, restricted to arsenals and power plants? Let's take a look at your kitchen. The bananas are radioactive from their potassium, the Brazil nuts have a thousand times more radium than any other food item, and your dried herbs and spices were irradiated to counter bacteria, germination and spoilage. There's thorium in your microwave oven and americium in your smoke detector.Bottom line:
By scientific measures, the average American gets 620 millirems of radiation each year, half from background exposure, and that number needs to reach 100,000 to be worrisome.
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