6/5/2013 Food Fears Persist in Japan

Source: New York Times
Date: 6/5/2013
by: Jamie Williams
Two years after the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, people are still worried about contaminated food, and farmers are struggling.

6/25/2012 Fukushima Selling local FISH, Free Tea, & Reactor 4 Bulging Update

Source: MsMilkytheclown
Date: Published on Jun 25, 2012
Editor's Note: I love the unique video editing.

5/24/2012 Nuclear Disaster Spreads to Houses, Food

Source: CNN via Infowars
Date: 5/24/2012 added to CNN videos

Could the rocks that burned through the California woman’s pocket have come from the contaminated region?

10/27/2011 Panel advises limiting lifetime radiation exposure to 100 millisieverts

Source: Kyodo News
Date: 10/27/2011

TOKYO, Oct. 27, Kyodo

A government food safety panel finalized its report Thursday calling for limiting cumulative internal radiation exposure during a person's lifetime to below 100 millisieverts, a benchmark beyond which the risk of cancer increases.

Following the Food Safety Commission's conclusion, which updates an evaluation by its working group in July, the health ministry will convene an advisory panel meeting Monday to revise its provisional limits for radioactive substances in food set after the Fukushima nuclear crisis triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The current provisional limits such as 500 becquerels of radioactive cesium for rice, vegetables, meat and fish per kilogram, and 200 becquerels for drinking water and milk are expected to be lowered with the commission's advice.
...

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10/6/2011 Rice market turned upside down by radiation fears

Source: The Japan Times: Yen for Living
Date: October 6th, 2011
by: Philip Brasor & Masako Tsubuku

Japan’s rice harvest season started at the end of August, and is presently centered on the Tohoku region; or, at least it would be centered there if so much of the crop hadn’t been neutralized by the Mar. 11 tsunami and then what was left wasn’t contaminated by fallout from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactor. Japanese people prize rice grown in the northeastern part of the country more than rice grown anywhere else, and they prefer new rice (shinmai), the newer the better. This is a cultural thing, since in some countries — India and Italy, for instance — older rice is considered something of a delicacy.
...
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9/3/2011 (Video) The Nuclear Note: Fukushima and Tokyo Japan

Weekend report including testing of Tokyo topsoil (links below)
[Editor's Note:  This video is a compilation of the source videos sited in the links below.]

[1] Japan radiation worries worsen:
http://dhaka.bdnews24.com/video.php?cid=2&id=184&p=42&sdate=&...


[2] Radioactive contamination with cesium (Cs-137, Cs-134) from Fukushima found in Tokyo soil.
Uploaded by bionerd23 on Sep 3, 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uziEgRan2G8

Seen in this video is a gamma spectrum, performed with a high-purity germanium detector.  In a 50 grams sample of soil (drain / gutter of streets) from the sagamihara area west of tokio (250 km from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant), significant amounts of the synthetic cesium isotopes Cs-137 and Cs-134 were found.  These manmade isotopes are from Fukushima, unless there was another, yet unknown incident, meaning the contamination spread quite far.

8/29/2011 Radioactive cesium in San Francisco Bay Area milk close to exceeding EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level

Source: ENENews
Date: August 29th, 2011 at 02:39 PM

UCB Milk Sampling, UC Berkeley, August 25, 2011:
The MDA was reduced considerably since the last test on August 11.
Milk with best buy date of August 22, 2011:

• Cesium-134 .047 Becquerels per liter (1.27 picocuries per liter)
• Cesium-137 .052 Bq/liter (1.41 pCi/l)

A total of 2.78 pCi/l of radioactive cesium was detected.
“EPA lumps these gamma and beta emitters together under one collective MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level], so if you’re seeing cesium-137 in your milk or water, the MCL is 3.0 picocuries per liter; if you’re seeing iodine-131, the MCL is 3.0; if you’re seeing cesium-137 and iodine-131, the MCL is still 3.0.” -Forbes.com

8/19/2011 Thyroid Radiation Exposure Found in Children Near Tepco Plant

Source: Bloomberg
Date: Aug 19, 2011 4:49 AM CT 
by: Chisaki Watanabe

Medical tests on children living in three towns near the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant found 45 percent of those surveyed suffered low-level thyroid radiation exposure, Japan’s government said in a statement.

While the statement didn’t comment on the source of the contamination, the announcement follows reports of radioactive material found in food after radiation leaks from the meltdown of three reactors at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant.


The tests covered 1,080 children aged up to 15 in three towns, Iwaki, Kawamata and Iitate, between 38 to 47 kilometers from the reactors. The tests between March 24 and 30 showed none of the children’s thyroid glands exceeded the safety threshold of 0.2 microsievert per hour set by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, according to the Aug. 17 statement.

At least one child had 0.1 microsievert per hour, the highest level observed, while more than half of those exposed absorbed 0.01 microsievert per hour, the statement said. Children are susceptible to poisoning from radioactive iodine, which can accumulate in the thyroid and cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization.

On June 6, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the reactor meltdowns at the plant released about 770,000 tera becquerels of radioactive material into the air between March 11 and March 16, doubling an earlier estimate.

Chernobyl

That’s about 14 percent of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster in modern-day Ukraine. About 2 million people in Ukraine are under permanent medical monitoring 25 years after the accident, according to the nation’s embassy in Tokyo.
A becquerel represents one radioactive decay per second, which involves the release of atomic energy that can damage human cells and DNA, with prolonged exposure causing leukemia and other forms of cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.

While 203 people were hospitalized and 31 died after the explosion at Chernobyl, about 400,000 children are considered to have received significant doses of radiation to their thyroid that merit monitoring, the embassy said.
Cases of thyroid cancer in Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine, increased for at least 10 years after 1986 in children younger than 14 and for almost 20 years among 20-24 year olds, according to research by Shunichi Yamashita of Nagasaki University, who was appointed as an adviser to Fukushima prefecture on radiation exposure.

Food Tests

Japan has no centralized system to check for radiation contamination of food, leaving local authorities and farmers conducting voluntary tests.
Products such as spinach, tea, milk, and fish have been found contaminated with cesium and iodine as far as 360 kilometers (224 miles) from the plant.
Adding to the concern, officials confirmed today rice from Hokota City, about 150 kilometers from Dai-Ichi, was found to contain low levels or cesium. It was the first confirmation of rice contamination since the March 11 accident.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo at cwatanabe5@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Langan at plangan@bloomberg.net

8/14/2011 Radiating Americans with Fukushima rain, food: Clinton's secret pact

Source: The Examiner
Date: 8/14/2011
by: Deborah Dupre

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs 2009

Credits: 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Government agreed to downplay Fukushima radiation

Fukushima is far from stabilized according to energy advisor veteran with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, Arnie Gundersen who told Solar IMG Saturday that Americans, not just in the northwest, are unaware of being rained on with Fukushima nuclear hot particles and eating Fukushima contaminated food because the US government has deliberately minimized the catastrophe, partially due to a pact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed with Japan. Gundersen, with a team of other scientists, intends to prove government statements about Fukushima are false.
...
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8/17/2011 $50 for a Carton Of Eggs?!

Source: Wealth Wire
Date: August 17th, 2011
by: Brittany Stepniak

Eggs are about to get expensive...really expensive. And we aren't talking about Natalie Portman's $600 carton of eggs either...

We're talking about the dangerously contaminated eggs in Japan related to the nuclear power plant meltdown earlier this Spring.

After government withheld some seriously unnerving information about the amount of radiation leakage, some skeptical farmers have taken it upon themselves to bring their products to volunteer testing stations.
...
Read full article here

8/14/2011 Mushrooms Join Radiation Threats to Japan Food

Source: Bloomberg
Date: Aug 14, 2011 10:01 AM CT
by: Naoko Fujimura and Chris Cooper

Mushrooms joined the threats to Japan’s food chain from radiation spewed by Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, as the country expands efforts to limit the effects of the disaster.
...
Read full article here

7/26/2011 Radiation turns up in all kinds of food products in Japan

Source: RT News
Date: 7/26/2011

After visiting the Fukushima nuclear plant and meeting with Japan's prime minister, the head of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, has promised to provide all necessary expertise to complete the second phase of containing the crisis by early next year. For more on what's happening in Japan RT's joined live from Hiroshima by nuclear energy expert Doctor Robert Jacobs.

7/26/2011 Japanese Scientists Push for More Radiation Tests to Assess Seafood Risks

Source: Bloomberg
Date: Jul 26, 2011 12:31 AM CT
Photo: Sea Radiation Tests May Miss Seafood Threat

Photographer: Toshiyuki Aizawa/Bloomberg

Women look at fresh fish in a supermarket in Tokyo. Japan’s government has to release more data from ocean radiation tests to accurately assess the contamination threat to seafood, according to a statement by the Oceanographic Society of Japan.

Japan’s government has to release more data from ocean radiation tests to accurately assess the contamination threat to seafood, according to a statement by the Oceanographic Society of Japan.
...
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7/12/2011 Where's the radioactive beef part 2: cattle farm inspections

Date: 7/12/2011

The radiation tainted beef from a Minamisoma City farm made it out to at least 11 prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and some of the radioactive beef has been consumed.[1,2]  As per the Japan Times:

...
The farm shipped the six cows between May and June, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Their beef was distributed to Tokyo and Shizuoka, Osaka, Kanagawa and Ehime prefectures. It was also distributed to dealers in Hokkaido, Aichi, Tokushima and Kochi.


According to Aichi Prefecture, 5.9 kg of meat was shipped to a grill eatery in the prefecture from a Tokyo processing plant and 3.15 kg of that meat had been consumed.


Hokkaido said one cow's worth of meat was consumed in a restaurant in Chitose.


The meat was also sold at a supermarket chain in Tokushima and Kochi prefectures.[2]
...

NHK World: Fukushima Prefecture to inspect all cattle farms


Typically local governments are expected to do testing and ensure food safety. Previously, only the radiation level on the outside of cattle was checked, which means that, hypothetically, if the outside of the animal had been scrubbed clean it could have passed the inspection even if the meat itself exceeded the 300 becquerels/hour safety limit. The amount of beef able to be tested is about 1 percent of the total. However, the ministry of agriculture just recently launched its own testing of farms in Fukushima Prefecture, which will include all farms (the total number is about 260) which raise beef cattle and are in evacuation areas.[2]

NHK World: On-site inspection of cattle farmers begins


[1] Meat of 6 cows fed radioactive straw reaches 11 prefectures, Kyodo News via Japan Today
[2] Radioactive beef already sold, eaten, The Japan Times

7/11/2011 (Video) Where's the radioactive beef?

Date: 7/11/2011

The radioactive beef in the news lately is actually sourced from a single farm in Minamisoma City, which is near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but outside the government mandated exclusion zone.


Here is how the radioactive beef propagated per NHK World:

...
Above normal levels of radioactive cesium have also been found in 11 other head of cattle from the same farm after they were brought to a slaughterhouse in Tokyo.


Officials of Shizuoka City, more than 300 kilometers from Minamisoma City, say a meat-packing company bought 27 kilograms of the beef on June 10th.


13 kilograms have already been sold to restaurants in the city. In an inspection, Shizuoka City detected 1,998 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, 4 times higher than the government's standard.


The remainder, 14 kilograms of beef from Minamisoma was purchased by a meat dealer and sold by retailers or consumed at restaurants.


Tokyo, Kanagawa and 3 other prefectures also have found that meat from 6 head of cattle raised by the same producer was sold to some local dealers.[1]

The radioactive beef was detected as having more than triple the legal limit of radioactive cesium contamination.[2]  The farmer kept his cattle inside, but when he ran out of feed he fed them radioactive hay which had been sitting uncovered outside and was exposed to the fallout from Fukushima Daiichi.  The radioactive straw itself was found to have radioactive cesium at 75,000 becquerels per kilogram.  I have seen two conflicting figures as to what the safe limit is for radioactive cesium.  NHK World says it is 300 becquerels/kilogram.  Kyodo News says 75,000 becquerels/kg is 56 times the safe limit (e.g. 1339.29 beqeurels/kg if plugging the numbers in to a calculator). [2, 3]

What stuck out as a sore thumb from the video is that only the outside of the cattle is being measured for radiation, not the internal levels of the beef.

Residents from two areas of Minamisoma where radiation levels were found to be at least 20 millisieverts/year are also being screened presently for internal radiation levels. Although Minamisoma City is outside the Fukushima evacuation zone, it appears to be a radiation hot spot.


[1] Radioactive contaminated beef found in Shizuoka, NHK World
[2] Cesium found in hay fed to cattle,  NHK World
[3] Radioactive cesium found in straw fed to cattle in Fukushima, Kyodo News via Japan Today
[4] Minami-soma starts internal radiation checks, NHK World

7/6/2011 Japan Sets Radiation Limits For Infant Drinks And Food More Than Twice The International Limits For Nuclear Waste

Source: Alexander Higgins Blog
Date: 7/6/2011
;
Calls grow for the resignation of a Japanese official caught lying to the public about the safety of radiation limits that have been “temporarily” increased to shockingly high levels.
...
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6/19/2011 | Crisis brewing as Japan's tea farmers face radiation ban

Source: CNN International
Date: June 19, 2011 2:39 a.m. EDT
by: Kyung Lah

(CNN) -- Japan's green tea fields sway in the early summer winds, the picture of bucolic beauty. But beneath these peaceful rows of young green buds, ready for the second harvest of the year, a national crisis is brewing.
...
Read full article and view video here

6/15/2011 | Japan’s Ad-Hoc Radiation Tests Raise Concerns

Source: Bloomberg
Date: Jun 15, 2011 10:01 AM CT
by: Aya Takada and Yasumasa Song

Kimie Nozaki, a mother of three children living 60 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors, said she doesn’t trust the government’s testing program for radiation-contaminated food.
...
Read full article here