Great, now kids have a new excuse for not drinking their milk: US milk samples from Spokane, Washington have tested positive for a radioactive iodine blown over from Japan, the EPA announced Wednesday. The amounts are small, only 0.8 pico-curies, according to tests taken March 25 by the agency, and are 5,000 times below the FDA’s “intervention level.”

The particles were deposited on grass that was then eaten by cows and then the iodine became reconstituted into milk.

Though the actual radiation is incredibly dilute by the time it hits the milk or cheese, it shows how the effects of the Fukushima disaster are not going to remain limited to just the Land of the Rising Sun.

Low Levels of Radiation Found in American Milk [NYT]

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