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Professor John Robertson OBA

From the New York Post, yesterday and in four other major US newspapers:

US regulators are warning customers not to eat or serve potentially radioactive shrimp sold at Walmart — citing possible health dangers including a higher risk of cancer. Frozen raw shrimp sold by Walmart’s private label Great Value has been recalled after US Customs and Border Protection detected Cesium-137 in the supplier’s shipping containers at ports in Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah and Miami. 

Cs-137 is a radioisotope that is typically man-made through nuclear reactions.  Long-term, low-dose exposure can lead to an elevated risk of cancer, due to damage to DNA within the body’s living cells, regulators warned.¹

The exact level of the radioactivity is not mentioned in any of the reports but the point about low-dose, long-term damage is repeated.

This reminded me of reports from my own area, in South West Scotland:

In 2016, researchers at Glasgow University reported ‘enhanced’ radioactivity levels, in shellfish catches, at a number of coastal locations in Cumbria, near the Sellafield plant, and on the west coast of Scotland, including the village of Maidens, in Ayrshire.²

The level of contamination, 348 Becquels per Kg, found at Maidens is lower than the ‘safe’ level of 1 000 Bq/Kg set for the UK, in 1986 after the Chernobyl event. ³

However, in Japan the government sets a level of only 100 Bq/kg as a safe maximum for food, far less than the level found at Maidens. Seafood consumption is of course, more common in Japan than in Scotland but there will still be some regular consumers put at risk by this contamination.⁴

The source of the radioactivity was even reported by the Herald in 2015:

Radioactive waste from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria is contaminating shellfish hundreds of kilometres away on the west coast of Scotland, according to a new scientific study. Scottish researchers discovered traces of radioactive carbon discharged from Sellafield in the shells of mussels, cockles and winkles as far north as Port Appin in Argyll, 160 miles from the notorious nuclear plant.⁵

Radiation from nuclear plants and present on beaches or seafood has been linked to increased incidents of childhood leukaemia. German research suppressed by Labour Government and media in 2008 revealed under 5’s living near nuclear plants more than twice as likely to develop leukemia.⁶

Sources:

1. https://nypost.com/2025/08/19/business/fda-urges-walmart-to-recall-potentially-radioactive-shrimp/
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X15301454
3. https://www.reading.ac.uk/foodlaw/news/uk-09047.htm
4. https://www.pref.fukushima.lg.jp/site/portal-english/en01-03.html
5. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14157272.scottish-shellfish-contaminated-radioactive-waste-sellafield/
6. https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/06/02/german-research-suppressed-by-labour-government-and-media-in-2008-revealed-under-5s-living-near-nuclear-plants-more-than-twice-as-likely-to-develop-leukemia/