Health Highlights: July 24, 2018

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Fukushima Fallout in Some California Wines: Study

Some California red wines contain small amounts of radioactive particles from the 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, but the affected wines don’t pose a health risk.

After the meltdown, a radioactive cloud drifted across the Pacific Ocean to California. Researchers wondered whether that cloud led to wines with higher levels of a radioactive isotope called cesium-137, CNN reported.

They tested two well-known types of California wines — ros and Cabernet sauvignon — made between 2009 and 2012. Some of the wines made after 2011 had twice as much cesium-137 as wines made before 2011.

The study was submitted July 11 to the Cornell University Library.

But there’s no reason to avoid California wines, because the World Health Organization says the amount of radioactive material that spread to other countries after the Fukushima meltdown is much lower than what people are exposed to normally, CNN reported.

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