'Systematic contamination', @qamaddy?! Uh oh, that info wasn't in the public domain, thanks for sharing.
Here's what I gleaned from publicly available information, including the FDA alert notice (I researched this in depth for a post I wrote about it last week (Radioactive Shrimp: The Story Behind the Recall Notices)):
The contaminant in the shrimp was caesium 137 (Cs-137), a radioactive version (‘isotope’) of the chemical caesium.
Cs-137 is a common by-product of nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear accidents. It is not naturally found in the environment but can be present as radioactive fallout from these human-made nuclear events.
In the environment, Cs-137 behaves like soluble salts, moving easily through air and water, allowing it to get into soil and plants. It emits beta particles and gamma radiation, which pose health risks, including an increased risk of cancer.
Cs-137 does not cause objects in its vicinity to become radioactive.
Cs-137 was found in shipping containers, prompting tests on food and resulting in the FDA alert for shrimp from one manufacturer in Indonesia.
Since the shipping containers and shrimp both contained Cs-137, some kind of cross-contamination must have occurred. Because four containers were affected (at four U.S. ports), but only one shipment of shrimp, the shrimp could not have contaminated the shipping containers. Rather, Cs-137 from one of the containers somehow got into the shrimp.
How exactly could any chemical, let alone a radioactive one, get into shrimp from a shipping container? Lots of ways, I guess, but none of them good. Or legal.
I went deeper in my article, discussing whether there could be a link to fukushima, or terrorism, and including links to a bunch of sources, but that's the gist of it.
Am continuing to follow closely.
