Radiation levels
 

Just placed my order yesterday after a test drive, love the car but wondered if anyone had checked radiation levels in their cars.

I used to work as a geologist on the second largest uranium deposit in the world. You have nothing to worry about. Keep in mind however, that just about everything will give off radiation, so if some report does pop up somewhere it will likely try to scare people with falsehoods. The potassium in a banana is radioactive, so is all of the concrete you have ever seen, so are x-rays, and you get alot more than normal at altitude (airplanes). Its the amount and type of radiation that is the concern, not whether or not radiation is present. There are strict rules about exporting anything radioactive and legislators have generally gone way overboard setting limits ridiculously low. It would be interesting to see the levels as I am sure there is something in all cars that is radioactive, if your meter is sensitive enough. But I would not worry at all. Fears of radiation are generally overblown as we are exposed to it every day and we have literally evolved to deal with it. You need huge amounts before it ever becomes a concern. Let the arguments begin..........

More than I could have hoped for in a response, thank you very much. I'm not particularly knowledgable when it comes to radiation, knew about the reactor issue and have 2 kids to be concerned about, so I asked.

Some of the other responses did illicit a bit of a chuckle though ;)

Speaking as someone who was living in Japan when that earthquake and subsequent reactor(s) meltdown struck, and volunteered to help with relief efforts, I find neither the level of ignorance on this topic nor the attempts at humor funny in the slightest.

OP, you were exposed to more radiation sitting in front of your computer screen typing that post, than you have from the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi. Read up on it somewhere more credible than a car forum sometime: the real danger is to people who live there, and what it could do to the food supply.

Actually, yes... he was one of them. The question itself is so... dumb... that it hurts. It is possible to ask a question so dumb, that it is insulting. It's like finding out the shrimp you're eating came through the port of New Orleans, and asking, "Oh my god... do you think it was raped in the Superdome during Katrina?" It is exactly that stupid.

The only way these cars (or any of the materials in them) could have been rendered radioactive, is if the finished product was sitting outside, uncovered, 150 miles away from the plant, a year-and-a-half ago. Let's assume that's the case, that Subaru poured the molds for the dashboards, and left a big ol' truck of them sitting nuzzled up next to Reactor 3; if that's the case, do you spend a lot of time licking your dash? Do you suck on your gear-shift lever while driving down the road? No? Then you're FINE!!!

The danger from the fallout there is that it has contaminated the soil, and can get into the FOOD supply. Cesium builds up in your system over time (from INGESTION) and can give young people an elevated risk of thyroid cancer when they're older. A lot of places over there didn't even bother distributing potassium-ion pills to people over the age of 40 while the reactors were in meltdown, because we were told we'd die of natural death long before the cancer we were at risk for would catch up with us.

Is this a horrible situation for the generations of people who've called that region their home? Yes. Is it an all around bad situation for all of Japan, since a large percentage of their food was grown in that region? Yes. Is it insulting that people would post on a car forum their concerns about radiation for everyone to laugh about, when if you were seriously concerned for your children's safety you'd do a Google search and read up on the plethora of articles out there written by doctors and nuclear scientists? YES!!! For that reason alone, I'd love to see the moderators lock this thread; put a one word response up after the OP's original post, saying "No, the car is not radioactive," delete everything that came after, and just lock this down.

Here's an interesting chart to put various radiation levels into context:

http://xkcd.com/radiation/

Thank you for your post.

Had no idea you were over there during that catastrophe and volunteered during the clean-up... hats off to you.

You need to understand that the OP doesn't understand facts about radiation however. While the question may not have been a logical one to ask, it's merely a concern of someone who doesn't know any better.

The posts after it were the ones that were insensitive in my opinion, not the OPS.

However, your point is valid and I'll lock the thread now and clean up the other posts.