The amount of radioactivity in Pacific Bluefin Tuna from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is not as high as we once believed, CNN reported.
A 2012 study looked at tuna caught off the coast of California The study found cesium, a nuclear reactor byproduct that was believed to be associated with the meltdown. The cesium levels had significantly dropped since 2011.
"People did not know how to translate that into a dose, or into what risk do I have from eating that tuna," said Nicholas Fisher, a marine science professor Stony Brook University in New York. "The paper that's coming out today addresses that."
The study found that the health risks were actually relatively low. It was determined that a person eating tuna would only get five percent of the radiation that they would get from eating a banana, which is high in naturally radioactive potassium.
Fishermen, who eat more fish than most Americans, would receive about as much radiation as they would get from having a dental X-ray. This dose will most likely raise the cancer death rate by two people per every ten million.
"Even if we use the higher concentrations, the concentrations we measured in 2011, the doses to human consumers are very low, and lower than the naturally occurring radionuclides," Fisher said.
While radioactivity shouldn't be a huge concern in Bluefin Tuna, mercury levels can be a problem. People who ingest large amounts of mercury can find damage in their brain and nervous system.
The operating reactors at the Fukushima plant melted down in wake of the earthquake that struck Japan in 2011. There are still hundreds of thousand of tons of radioactive water that is yet to be disposed of.
While the meltdown was considered to be the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, the World Health Organization has stated that no deaths occurred from the radiation, and only a very small group of people are at a greater risk of cancer because of it.
