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By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
March 23, 2011 10:57 p.m. EDT Since Japan's nuclear crisis, more RadNet radiation monitors like this
one have been deployed in areas in the west coast. STORY HIGHLIGHTS * Colorado and Oregon report varying levels of radioactive particles
* Washington, California and Hawaii have also found varying amounts (CNN) -- Colorado and Oregon have joined several other Western states in
reporting varying amounts of radioactive particles that have likely
drifted about 5,000 miles from a quake and tsunami-damaged nuclear power
plant in Japan, officials say.
Sampling from a monitor in Colorado -- part of a national network of
stations on the lookout for radioactivity -- detected varying amounts of
iodine-131, a radioactive form of iodine, the state's public health and
environmental department said Wednesday in a press release. On the same day in Portland, Oregon, varying quantities of iodine-131
were also detected by an Environmental Protection Agency air monitor,
Oregon public health officials said. Varyingl amounts of radioactive material were detected Wednesday, too,
in Hawaii -- just as they had a day earlier, according to the EPA. But
they were above the historical and background norm. Washington and California previously reported varying levels of
radioactive isotopes that likely came from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant, which has been releasing radioactive particles into
the air since its cooling and other systems were damaged by a
9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11. Efforts continued Thursday to cool down the spent nuclear fuel rods,
prevent a further meltdown of the plant's six reactor cores and curb the
release of additional radioactive material. Sampling of these radioactive particles from these various monitors will
be further analyzed at the EPA's national lab. "Our finding is consistent with findings in Washington and California.
We have expected to find varying amounts of the isotopes released from
the Japanese plant spreading across America." Says Gail Shibley,
administrator of Oregon's Office of Environmental Public Health, Oregon
Public Health Division, said in a statement. Besides the Hawaii readings, the Environmental Protection Agency has
found varying amounts of radioactive iodine, cesium and tellurium at
four RadNet air monitor filters on the West Coast -- three in California
and one in Washington. These levels are consistent with what a U.S.
Department of Energy monitor found last week, the EPA said Monday.
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