(Continued from Page Al)
levels of 51 picocuries per liter in
the Williamsport area, 18
picocuries in the Harrisburg area
and 31 picocuries in the
Philadelphia area, according -t«
William Fouse, Bureau of Foods
and Chemistry.
He noted that the. maximum
dosage level was 12,000 picocuries
per liter of milk. Also, while the
levels have risen slightly, they do
not expect the counts to register
any significant amounts.
To illustrate how low and har
mless these levels are, Mashek
noted that in a chest x-ray a person
is exposed to 15 to 20 millirems. A
person drinking one liter of milk is
exposed to .08 millirems of iodine.
Milk samples are currently
being monitored daily from seven
regions of the state. “Agents in
each division are collecting
samples at the processing plants
as the milk comes from the farm,”
according to Howard Nields of the
Bureau of Foods and Chemistry.
The milk is then delivered to DER
to check for the isotope iodine
131.
This gaseous isotope travels with
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Traces of Radioactivity Detected in Pa. Milk
the wind and independently of
other fallout material. Therefore,
it is the first radioactive material
to be detected, said Nields.
Milk is used as a measure of the
concentration in an area since
cows convert grasses, that have
absorbed the isotope, into milk
quickly, Nields added.
“There is no reason for con
cern,” Mashek repeated due to the
very low levels, and there are no
plans to issue recommendations
that cows go on stored feed.
At the University of Penn
sylvania, a high level of .0033 of the
maximum permissable con
centration was measured ac
cording to Dr. Warren Witzig,
Head of the Department of Nuclear
Engineering. To cause any effects
this level would have to be 300
times higher and last for a whole
year, he added.
In other news related to the
Chernobyl accident, most grain
futures fell on Thursday in
response to the news that Soviet
agriculture would be largely
uneffected by the nuclear accident,'
and they would be making no
major grain purchases.
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Rumors also circulated this
week that the Soviets had made
inquiries concerning the purchase
of dairy cows in the buyout
program.
The USDA also reported this
week that 198 million pounds of
beef from the buyout program
were exported to Brazil.
Thursday the Senate Agriculture
Committee opened hearings
concerning the effects of the
nuclear accident on Russian
agriculture.
“It is important to emphasize,
that at this time, there is no in-
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Robert Thompson, Assistant
Secretary of Agriculture noted that
while the department of
agriculture is open to the idea,
“Most of the Soviet Union is
brucellosis free and they don’t
vaccinate for the disease. It is our
understanding that they won’t buy
animals that have been vac
cinated.”
He added that since most of the
animals in the United States have
been brucellosis vaccinated, it
limits the Soviets as a potential
market.
5 J ?»:
ii
I
111
formation is available that sup
ports the theories that agriculture
in the Byelorussian and Ukraine
areas will suffer radioactive
damage,” Thompson told the
committee.
Different experts on the matter
Delaware soybean loss
tops 2% in ’B6
NEWARK, DE - Delaware
soybean growers lost an average 2
percent of their potential Soybean
yield-230,000 bushels-last year to
the soybean cyst nematode (SCN).
At $5.25 a bushel, that amounts to
$600,000 worth of beans. Sussex
County producers were hardest
hit, though some in Kent County
also suffered losses.
University of Delaware ex
tension plant pathologist Bob
Mulrooney urges soybean farmers
to take steps now to reduce similar
losses this year. “The soybean cyst
nematode is the number one
disease problem in Delaware
soybeans,” he says. “In general,
growers can expect a 33 percent
yield loss in infested fields.”
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 17,1986-Al7 ‘
testified before the committee that
not a lot is known about the impact
this accident will have Soviet
agriculture. What is known, they
pointed out, is that the area close to
the Chernobyl plant is not an
important agricultural region.
problem is limited primarily to
fields where soybeans have been
grown continuously. A con
servative estimate is that ap
proximately 10,000 of Delaware’s
240,000 acres of soybeans are in
fested with SCN. The pest, first
detected in Delaware in 1978, has
now spead as far as north as
Dover. It has been a serious
problem in soybeans in the eastern
U.S. for many years.
"Nematode levels in infested
fields can easily be reduced with
rotation or the use of resistant
varieties,” the plant pathologist
says. “Farmers are finding it
really pays to follow recom
mendations from our annual SCN
resistant soybean and state
;an variet *,rials.”
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46x60
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