Stricken milk and vegetables
(From The Japan Times March 25 issue)

牛乳と野菜の出荷制限

The government March 21 told Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures to suspend shipments of spinach and kakina, a locally produced leaf vegetable, following the detection of radioactive substances at levels above the provisional limits under the Food Sanitation Law. It also told Fukushima Prefecture to suspend shipping raw milk for a similar reason. The radioactive substances apparently came from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The government the next day called on people to limit consumption of spinach, cabbage and a few other leaf vegetables from Fukushima Prefecture.

The government, which had ruled out a large-scale nuclear accident, had not set allowable limits for radioactive substances in farm products. The health ministry hurriedly established provisional limits and notified prefectural governments March 24.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that even if one continues to eat 1 kg of the spinach every day for a year, the accumulated radiation level will be one-fifth that of one computerized tomography (CT) scan. And if one consumed the milk at the national average amount for a year, the accumulated radiation level would be about the same as that of one CT scan, he said.

But one cannot completely rule out the possibility of a chronic health problem if farm products with a low level of radioactivity are ingested over a long time. Radioactive iodine collects in the thyroid gland and children are most likely to suffer from internal exposure to radiation leading to thyroid cancer. While radioactive iodine has a half-life of eight days; for radioactive cesium, it's 30 years. The latter, though, is said to leave the body easily.

While the central and local governments must guard against radioactive contamination of food items, they must prevent a panic among consumers. They should carry out detailed radiation checks so that only products below the limits of contamination will be shipped to markets. They should provide accurate information to consumers to prevent an abnormal situation in which they refrain from buying even safe products. A close watch on fishery products will also be necessary.

政府は3月21日、福島第一原発の事故の影響で食品衛生法の暫定規制値を上回る放射性物質が検出されたとして、福島、茨城、栃木、群馬県産のホウレンソウやカキナ、福島産の原乳の出荷制限を、翌日にはホウレンソウ、キャベツ他の福島県産の葉物野菜の摂取制限を命じた。

農産物の放射性物質の基準はなく、厚労省が急遽、暫定的規制値を策定、24日に自治体に伝えた。枝野官房長官によると、検出された濃度と同程度のホウレンソウを毎日1キロ1年間摂取しても、CTスキャン1回の5分の1程度、牛乳は国民の年平均摂取量で1年間飲んだ場合、CTスキャン1回相当の被曝線量だという。

しかし低い濃度の農作物を長年摂取した場合の慢性的健康被害の可能性はなくならない。

政府と自治体は食物の放射能汚染と同時に、消費者の混乱も防がねばならない。詳細な放射能検査をもとに、汚染が規制値より低いもののみを出荷し、消費者に正しい情報を提供して安全な商品の買い控えを防ぐべきだ。