Low level iodine detected in Glasgow
29 March 2011
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has been
informed that an air sampler in the UK has reported the presence of
radioactive iodine. The value reported is extremely low and is
consistent with reports from other European countries such as
Iceland and Switzerland.
The high volume air sampler is located in Glasgow and samples
extremely large volumes of air each month, to determine the
concentration of radioactive substances at very low levels which
could be undetectable otherwise.
Dr James Gemmill, SEPA’s Radioactive
Substances Manager said:
“The concentration of iodine detected is
extremely low and is not of concern for the public or the
environment.
“The fact that such a low concentration of
this radionuclide was detected demonstrates how effective the
surveillance programme for radioactive substances is in the
UK.
“SEPA has an ongoing comprehensive monitoring
programme for radioactivity in Scotland and has increased the level
of scrutiny to provide ongoing public assurance during this
period.”
Ends
Notes
The Health Protection Agency
(HPA) has also
released a statement on their website.
The UK system for detecting overseas incidents
of a radioactive nature is the Radioactive Incident Monitoring
Network (RIMNET). RIMNET involves the collation of environmental
information on an hourly basis from 92 sites in the UK (27 in
Scotland). This data is checked by the Met Office in London to
ensure there are no abnormal increases in radiation in the UK’s
environment.
SEPA’s monitoring programme for radioactivity
also includes a further 14 air samplers located throughout
Scotland.