Health officials are reassuring British Columbians they have no need to worry about radiation from milk produced in the West Coast province, after tests showed a slight increase in radioactivity in milk in Washington state.
The BC Centre for Disease Control says the levels of radioisotope iodine-131 found in sample milk south of the border are so low that they pose no risk to human health.
Canada's food inspection agency has not yet reported results for B.C. milk samples, but tests earlier this week of rainwater and seaweed in Vancouver showed "minuscule" levels of the isotope, as expected.
Experts say the tiny increases in iodine-131 -- the result of the nuclear failure in Japan -- are decreased by half every eight days, so radioactivity levels are expected to drop quickly.
Levels detected in Spokane, Wash., were 5,000 times lower than the acceptable limit for radiation in food in the U.S.
According to the food inspection agency, annual evaluations of radiation levels in food have indicated extremely low background levels of radioactivity, and results above those normal levels would be clearly noticeable.
