Government Under Fire as Radiation Is Found in Milk, Rain

Pretty sure cow cancer doesn't concern me much. If the Iodine-131 was specifically stated in the article to be expected to have broken down by the 9th day, what is the point of freaking out? Even if it does go into the cows and eventually the milk, I'm sure it'll be long after the radionuclides have lost all its radiation when we consume any of that milk.

You misinterpret what half life means. Half life is the time it takes for an amount or concentration of a substance to decrease by half. That means that after 8 days, half of the Iodine 131 remains. Then after 18 days, 1/4 remains. Then after 24 days 1/8 remains, etc. I thought schools taught this in middle school or something. Guess schools these days are worse than I thought.

But that assumes no extra iodine 131 is added to the system, but it is very possible for more to come from japan with the conditions the plants are still in. And only a small amount of people will experienience a direct sickness from this iodine (either by drinking rainwater, or being very unlucky as radiation is like a lottery), and the main concern is the wild life or animals that rely on rain water, or animals that consume substances directly affected by the radiation (ex. a cow eating grass saturated in radiated water).