good news for those who are waiting for the Z

zcar_dad

If even it fails screening, the vehicle can still be decontaminated. All of states/counties around US nuclear power plants have plans and procedures on how to monitor vehicles for contamination and how to decontaminate those vehicles. The Japanese authorities have the same type of procedures.

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2009 Nismo 370Z #0067, Brillant Silver

jginnane

I've spent time online looking for radiation detectors, or, as they're known, "Geiger" counters. First -- the leftovers from the Cold War are not applicable, because they're designed to measure high doses occurring in wartime. To measure low doses you need modern, advanced equipment -- stuff that starts at ~$500 per machine (and needs periodic recalibration, too).

But there's still no documentation concerning acceptable long-term rates of accrual. (The Japanese plant workers wear dosage badges, which measure how much they've gotten in the period of time since the badge was activated.) They know when they've accumulated, say, 400 milliroentgens, they can't work again until the following month. (Or whatever the rules are.)

But we're talking about something else here. We're not nuclear plant workers, and we're not at war. How many cancers can we expect from being subjected to a slightly radioactive dashboard in a car over the period of ownership -- 3, six years? What is the risk of continuing exposure at the high-end of the "acceptable" daily figure? If you're one of those people who don't smoke, etc., you may feel that even a 0.01% chance of increased risk is unacceptable to your health, and that of your family. And that's why this whole situation is so awful. You don't even want products from these affected areas imported to the USA, further befouling your environment.

Remember Christine Christie, the former governor of NJ, who was appointed head of the EPA during the 9/11/2001 WTC disaster? She had the job of telling people in lower Manhattan it was safe to go out and breathe the asbestos dust. Turns out this was a lie. I would not accept the word of any governmental authority figure with respect to Fujiyama's released radiation until at least five years after his statement, when independent testing can prove his accuracy.

jginnane

Whoops, that was Chrissie Whitman. My bad. The current governor is a Christie (the fat one).

On this car radiation business, since the components are made in many different places, it's a real crapshoot. You might accept much higher radiation levels on tires, which are far from the occupants, than you would from a molded steering wheel or airbag. It's not like invisible pixie dust that falls only on the sheet metal, and that can be hosed off with a splash of Dawn detergent. And we're not all about to go out and spend $500+ on good radiation sensors to measure what we can from parts of the car (like in the video at the opening of this thread).

Cmike2780

The average person receives about 300 millirem of naturally occuring radiation a year.

That's not to say I wouldn't mind an extra dose of radiation, but all this fear associated with hearing the word "radiation" is over exagerrated by the media. Public fear drives viewership and the newsmedia feeds on this stuff. There are far worst things to worry about. Its kind of funny how people make a big deal out of this, yet hardly take a second thought about the carcinogens spewing out of the exhaust.

A short list of the likely pathogens in car exhaust:
Carbon Monoxide
Nitrogen dioxide
Sulphur dioxide
Benzene
Formaldehyde
Polycyclic hydrocarbons

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[09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R]