(RALEIGH) -- State officials say trace amounts of radiation from Japan have been detected in North Carolina, but it poses no threat to public health. Lee Cox of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources confirmed the finding.

"Iodine 131 is not a naturally occurring radioactive material.  It comes from degradation of fuel products and a nuclear incident such as the Fukushima plant in Japan.  We've seen this come across the United States as we expected," said Cox.

Gerald Speight in the agency's Radiation Protection Section says similar levels were found in North Carolina after the 1986 meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in what was then the Soviet Union.