EPA Ends Special Monitoring for Fukushima Radiation Despite Continued Rise in Nuclear Fallout, Increased Threats to US

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced yesterday that it is ceasing its special monitoring protocols in the US for radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, despite the fact that no real progress at the plant has been made, and threats to the US are persistent. At the same time as the EPA announcement, foreign reports also indicate that levels of radiation in Pacific waters near the Fukushima plant are now up to 1,000 times normal levels, with no real indication of where this radioactive water is flowing.

The EPA has stated that radiation levels in the US related to the Fukushima incident have been "consistently decreasing," and that the agency no longer needs to regularly test food, air, and water for radiation in the manner that it has been. In fact, the agency is so confident that it states in its announcement that "[t]he next round of milk and drinking water sampling will take place in approximately three months".'

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