WEEK 34 Aug 12th to 18th 2002

   DOMESTIC ANIMALS STILL HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE

   Domestic animals in at least 40 Norwegian counties will have to be treated, fed with special forage (again) because of high radiation in meat and milk. The reason, as before is the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 16 years ago.
   According to preliminary prognosis from the Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency (Statens Strålevern) will also this year between 40 and 70 counties be hit. The national food and drug administration (Næringsmiddeltilsynet) has already issued a temporary ban on butchering several places.
   - The final numbers won't be ready until the middle of September, Per Strand in the Radiation Protection Agency says. - This is dependent on how much mushrooms there will be this year. Mushroom is sucking up a lot of radioactivity and domestic grazing animals are eating a lot of mushroom.
   The upper limit for starting the forage treatment for sheep, lamb, cows, goats and horses are 600 Bq/kg (becquerel per kilo). For reindeer it is 3000 Bq/kg. The previous season 36800 sheep and lamb be treated before being skipped off to the slaughterhouses and become human consumption food. This year's measures are suggesting that steps in the same scale will be needed. In addition to the special forage program the animals are fed Berliner Blue in various forms, a compound binding radioactive cesium.
   Norwegian agriculture will probably keep struggling with the after effects of the accident in the Ukraine for years to come. Exactly how long nobody can say. In the months following the Chernobyl-accident vast quantities of Cesium 127 and 135 fell over Norway with rain from the east. The half-life for these modest radioactive isotopes are 30 years. According to prognosis from Norwegian health authorities may 500 Norwegians contract cancer as a direct result of the pollution after Chernobyl. The numbers for indirect effects and complications are far higher. In several valleys in middle and northern Norway the number of brain tumors was doubled from 1985 to 1990.