By JAY REEVES
Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – At a government laboratory in Alabama, workers in blue coats unload envelopes packed with small filters that trapped air particles in Hawaii, Alaska and elsewhere. The discs are placed in lead-lined, barrel-like devices for testing to make sure no traces of radioactive materials have wafted across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.
So far, the sea breeze in places like Honolulu is no more dangerous than the pollen-laden air of the Deep South, according to officials. Still, the 60 or so workers in the 72,000-square-foot building will be the first to know if the Japanese disaster spreads harmful amounts of radiation to the U.S.
Minute amounts of radiation from Japan’s reactor have spread as far as the U.S. East Coast, though officials say it’s less harmful than the radiation people are exposed to on a routine basis. Alabama is one of several states where the lab has detected those traces, it said Tuesday.