Yesterday morning (15th) an internet rumor got going on this side of the ocean that got the masses quite stirred up. A message was flying around on blogs, by email, and via SMS that a giant radioactive cloud was spreading across Asia from Japan. Furthermore, it gave instructions on precautions to take to avoid coming in contact with this toxic cloud. By all means, stay out of the rain!!
By the afternoon local governments and the BBC (which was quoted as being the source of this information) were doing everything they could to inform people that the message was a hoax.
When I received the email from a friend, it didn't pass the smell test, so I just hit the delete button. I figure that the delete button was made for such a time as this.
In a city where the air quality is rated as HAZARDOUS more than 50% of the time, it seemed silly to be panicked about something that WASN'T happening 1500 miles away!
I doubt if any radiation could even penetrate the smog here.