Don't Panic! Radiation Levels in Taiwan

by Taiwan Nights · 1 year ago

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There has been plenty of talk, lots of rumors and many fears regarding possibly rising radiation levels in Taiwan. Some people even received (hoax) emails warning them of an approaching radiation cloud heading towards here. Chill out though, you're safe to party!

It is highly unlikely that non-neglectable levels of airborne radiation from the Japan Nuclear plant will ever reach Taiwan. For many people though it should be comfortable to know however that everyone can lookup live data of current radiation in Taiwan.

Real Time Radiation Levels

The Taiwan government provides a publicly available web page that shows real-time radiation levels throughout the Island. Visit the Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network to get the latest numbers in your area. They've been low and stable since the beginning of the reactor incidents on Friday, March11th.

Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network Taiwan, Screenshot

How to read those numbers?

The page shows radiation levels in µSv/h (microsievert per hour). This value basically reflects how much radiation a biological body absorbs during an hour of being exposed to radiation. When radiation is low the absorbed radiation is low and the other way round.

For example one dental radio scan exposes you to roughly 5 µSv and by eating a banana you'll absorb 0.1 µSv (More Info).

Any value below 0.2 µSv/h is totally safe and no reason for concern. One week ago the (natural) radiation level in Taipei was 0.071 µSv/h and at the time of writing this article has *dropped!* to 0.058 µSv/h. This article just barely covers the surface of the matter but if you're interested to learn more, we recommend this text by Bill Knight from the U.S. National Laboratories in the Health Physics department: Bill Knight, "On The Fukushima Nuclear Emergency - The Media Meltdown"

So take it easy when the news or some people try to freak you out, you'll rather die of alcohol poisoning than of radiation sickness when hitting the clubs, bars and pubs in Taiwan.

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