Radiation from Japan reaches Las Vegas

Ted Hartwell, manager of the Desert Research Institute's Community Environmental Monitoring Program, said that these tiny amounts of radiation are radioactive isotopes iodine-131 and xenon-133 that hit a monitoring station by the city's Atomic Testing Museum.

Amounts of radiation too small to be of any significance
However, experts are saying that there is no cause for alarm because the amount of radiation is too negligible to cause any harm to human beings.

Hartwell believes that he is certain that these radioactive isotopes have come from Japan because such isotopes are usually not found or detected in Nevada.

He also added that the levels of radiation that he has observed are far too low to be of any significance.

Las Vegas is not the only place around Japan that has reported the detection of tiny amounts of radiation coming in from earthquake wrecked country.

California, Colorado, Hawaii and Washington have also reported the presence of radiation coming in from Japan. Scientists have said that their levels are not high enough to be of any significance.

Health officials in Nevada have made it clear that even if more radiation comes from Japan, it is unlikely to be harmful because of the sheer distance that the radiation would have to travel.

"Any material released must travel 10,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, during which time it will be dispersed and diluted in the atmosphere to levels that might eventually be detectable, but which will not present a health hazard nor require any protective actions," said Eric Matus, radiation physicist for the Nevada State Health Division.

Scientists say arrival of radiation unsurprising
Scientists across the globe have said that they are not surprised by the incoming radiation from Japan because the movement of radiation to far-off places by winds is quite predictable.

They said that the radioactive particles have been caught up in the right wind pattern and will move across the oceans to many different places.

Health officials in Nevada have made it clear that even if more radiation comes from Japan, it is unlikely to be harmful because of the sheer distance that the radiation would have to travel.

At the University of Nevada, small amounts of the radioactive isotope cesium-137 had been identified in the laboratory in the period between March 17 and 21, but were not reported by the health officials.

The Desert Research Institute in Nevada has 29 monitoring stations that scan the air to look for radioactive isotopes.