Radioactivity found in food and water in Japan

CBC
March 19, 2011

“Japan nuclear crisis taints food, water”

Spinach and milk from two regions near Japan’s stricken nuclear plant are showing radiation levels above the legal safety limit, a Japanese official said Saturday.

But Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, said a person would have to drink the milk for a year to ingest as much radiation as in a CT scan. A year of the spinach would amount to about one-fifth of a CT scan.

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“It’s not like if you ate it right away you would be harmed,” Edano told reporters in Tokyo as Japan’s nuclear crisis entered its second week. “It would not be good to continue to eat it for some time.”

Also worrisome were the traces of radioactive iodine detected in tap water in Tokyo, 220 kilometres from the overheating nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture, and in several other prefectures, although again the government played down any safety concern.

The iodine in Fukushima tap water tested above safety limits on Thursday, the government said, but had fallen to within legal limits by Saturday.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

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Yoko Nishikawa
Reuters
March 19, 2011

“Tokyo water sample shows radioactive iodine: government”

(Reuters) – A sample of tap water from the Japanese capital shows a tiny level of radioactive iodine after an earthquake and tsunami damaged a nuclear power plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, the government said on Saturday.

The sample contained 1.5 becquerals per kg of iodine 131, well below the tolerable limit for food and drink of 300 becquerals per kg, the government added.

Jiji news agency said the presence of radioactive iodine in Tokyo tap water was rare.

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This article was posted: Saturday, March 19, 2011 at 8:46 am

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