Quote:
Originally Posted by ngmunling
I see. The problem is I was planning to study in Japan for 7 yrs then I was shock by the contaminated beef distribution.
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More like contaminated feed distribution rather than beef distribution, really. I think a key part of this is that they actually bothered to track down and recall the meat, even though the levels weren't all that high...
When it comes to the food situation, you need to be knowledgable about the situation rather than hopping on the train of fear-mongering.
Radiation limits in food are set at a one month or three month base. The calculations, from what I have read, are done by assuming that you eat nothing but that food for 30 to 90 straight days.
In the case of vegetables, the riskiest food in terms of potential contamination, the majority of the radiation is in particle form that a good rinse will remove. Radioactive dust, like any dust, is something that can be mostly washed away before you eat the food. (Regardless of radiation concerns, you should be in the habit of washing your food - it reduces the risk of food poisoning and your exposure to insecticides... Both things that can potentially be more harmful to your health than radiation.)
Now, let us say that you hunted out contaminated meat, picked vegetables from within the evacuation area, and then ate them every day... You would probably have a slightly higher risk of some forms of cancer after a couple years.
The thing is, the majority of food is NOT contaminated. The majority of cows have not been eating contaminated feed in the weeks before slaughter. It would be very very hard... No, pretty much impossible, for someone to manage to eat any significant amount of contaminated food without living in the immediate area around the plant and raising it.
A lot of Japanese food is imported. Vegetables tend to be brought in from fairly local places. Meat, beef particularly, is not a major part of the diet.
Either way though, I find it hard to think you would encounter much of any food at all from Tohoku while staying in Kansai. They are not at all near each other.