MARLBORO — Brattleboro and the surrounding area is radioactive.
According to the Vermont Department of Health, Vermont has low-grade levels of radiation that fall below the 120 millirem “danger” zone set by the federal government, but are certainly higher than the naturally occurring 9-millirem levels.
An average day in Brattleboro can be accompanied by a sultry 15-20 millirem radiation reading, the maximum level allowed annually by the state. This has been going on for more than 30 years now. That adds up to a lot of millirems.
Even when Vermont Yankee closes, hundreds of tons of radioactive, spent fuel rods in unsecured pools will continue to emit radiation for millennia.
Besides radiation from Vermont Yankee, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported that much of our average 310 millirem annual radiation exposure is from natural sources such as radon (37 percent), medical procedures (36 percent), and even consumer products (3 percent).
The scientific community is debating the effect and danger of long-term, low-grade radiation. U.S. military and government sites say there are no effects.
The German government is not as sure. Germany has been studying people affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, where low-grade radiation is present. Researchers in Japan have also studied the long-term effect of low-grade radiation in their country.
Long-term exposure to low-grade radiation, scientists discovered, is actually more devastating than a short dose at the scene of a nuclear disaster. According to the NRC, radiation affects our cells by producing three biological effects: cell damage, cell death, and “biophysical change.”
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Each of us has millions of cells; we make new ones every day. We can remove the damaged and dead cells from of our bodies and replace them with new healthy cells, but not when we are continually bombarded with low doses of radiation.
With too many cells damaged, day after day, perpetual radiation takes its toll. Our bodies weaken, and our immune systems are damaged. The damaged cells can develop into cancer.
And it's not just our bodies; radiation accumulates in the bodies of the fish, cows, sheep, chickens, and plants in our community, too: the organic farms, our backyard gardens.
Radiation does not break down like fats, it stays in our bodies and the bodies of animals we eat. As we eat higher up the food chain, eating the radioactive cows which ate the radioactive grass, our ingestion of concentrated radiation increases, too.
Radiation permeates everywhere, through windows, walls, roofs, on the breeze, in our air and our food. And not just Brattleboro food; nuclear reactors everywhere in the world contaminate many farm products and ocean foods, too.
No standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Organic Trade Association take into account low-grade radiation in food, but we can work to strengthen our bodies and also prevent as much radiation from entering them by eating a simple, inexpensive, nuclear-free protective diet.
• Eat low and easy on the food chain. Eat leafy greens and cabbages, foods high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E - all antioxidants that protect cells by getting rid of free radicals. Such foods also build healthy mucus membranes, improve circulation, and support the immune system. Leafy greens grow quickly and are not as heavily exposed to radiation as slower-growing root vegetables.
• Fiber binds radioactive substances, so a high-fiber diet with lots of whole grains helps. So do beans and nuts. Good choices include almonds, lentils, check peas, and soybean products such as tempeh and tofu.
• Nori seaweed is a great boost. It floods the adrenal glands with naturally occurring iodine that helps prevent them from filling with radiation. It has been found that people who consumed nori seaweed at last once a day were less affected by radiation.
• The preferred animal protein could come from small fish living in cold saltwater. This is because the salts in water absorb radiation, and the size of saltwater bodies are large enough that radiation concentrations are less. Smaller fish are lower on the food chain and have not accumulated many toxins in their bodies. Farm-raised or freshwater fish are exposed to more concentrated levels of toxins and radiation.
• Fats, including milk and dairy products and meat, should be avoided. They tend to have the highest concentrations of toxins and radiation, and they take the longest for the body to digest and process.
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So, while we do have Vermont Yankee contaminating our towns, we can be proactive and build ourselves up. We can adopt the nuclear free protective diet, and teach our family, friends, neighbors, and children how to do the same.
We can have nuclear free potlucks, and nuclear-free cooking demos at the Brattleboro Food Co-op. We can have recipe swaps, and a sharing of bulk food purchases. Do not be afraid to support your local farm, though choosing farms a bit more upwind or farther away from Vermont Yankee would probably be best.
More information on living healthier in a nuclear town can be found in the book Diet for the Atomic Age by Sara Shannon.