Radiation

[ngmunling]

Greetings. I apologise in advance if I said anything wrong.

With Fukushima accident still not in stable condition, the government had tried to ban food that contain radiation above governmental limits, particularly radioactive cesium and radioactive iodine.

Just a few weeks ago, cows that ate contaminated straws were processed and shipped to all prefectures except Okinawa & by the time the government starts to recall the beefs, some had been consumed.

I would like to ask that now in Kansai area (Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka), they are very far away from Tohoku but they were still affected by this contaminated beef distribution; Their other food like vegetables, are they also shipped from Tohoku? Where do Kansai region foods normally come from?

I had also asked this question in another thread in travel advice section, are radiation detectors and/or radiation dosimeters available now in Kansai area? If yes, which exact shop is it?

Will be great if a resident in Japan can answer this thread.

Your guys help will be geatly appreciated.

[Ryzorian]

I suspect you would be more in danger from Food posioning via the normal bacterial route than from radiation contamination.

[ngmunling]

Originally Posted by Ryzorian

I suspect you would be more in danger from Food posioning via the normal bacterial route than from radiation contamination.

er, ok.......

[Nyororin]

I Will basically second what Ryzorian said. At the levels of contamination that have been detected on food, at the top amounts you would still have to be eating it every day for years to have it threaten your health. If you are on a short trip to Japan, the chances of suffering any negative effects is virtually nil.

[Lonthego]

It's a whole lot of fear-mongering. Even right after the quake and nuclear meltdown there was no real danger to people living in the Tokyo area (which I was) much less those living in Kansai (osaka, kyoto, etc.)
In other words avoid Fukushima and you'll be fine..and don't eat raw meat..the Korean BBQ incidents have me more worried than radiated food.

[JBaymore]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I Will basically second what Ryzorian said. At the levels of contamination that have been detected on food, at the top amounts you would still have to be eating it every day for years to have it threaten your health. If you are on a short trip to Japan, the chances of suffering any negative effects is virtually nil.

A voice of sanity as always. Thanks.

Was there late May and early June......... did my homework beforehand on the actual radiation situation with friends in Japan and reputable information sites... and knew that for short term stay, well away from the nuclear plants,... all is just fine.

best,

............john

[ngmunling]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I Will basically second what Ryzorian said. At the levels of contamination that have been detected on food, at the top amounts you would still have to be eating it every day for years to have it threaten your health. If you are on a short trip to Japan, the chances of suffering any negative effects is virtually nil.

I see. The problem is I was planning to study in Japan for 7 yrs then I was shock by the contaminated beef distribution.

[Nyororin]

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.

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.

[acjama]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I think a key part of this is that they actually bothered to track down and recall the meat,

Well, it's a kind of principle of it. When the meat shows contamination levels several hundreds of times above the legal limit, the only correct procedure is to track it and shut it down. The farmers and producers are not nuclear physicists and couldn't possibly evaluate the danger (or it's lack of). They were after the money, period, no matter what the cost to anybody else. With this level of ethics, how are they going to act any differently when the problem is BSE or dioxin, or whatever?

I can safely argue that you will not convince a single parent to feed their kids with this beef with mere superficial statistical interpretation. I don't buy beef, Shizuoka green tea nor this year's rice, not because it could be "unsafe", but because their decision to distribute them nonetheless is immoral and unethical (not to mention illegal), and I will express this with my wallet.

Reindeer meat in my home country is still sometimes taken off the market for increased levels of cesium from Chrenobyl (yes, even 25 years after). By the producers themselves, not just by authorities.

And after the rant, info that "Top Valu" branded beef sold at Aeon supermarkets will all be checked for legal levels before being released into the stores. About time, I want more FRESH MEAT!!! A big fat wet slab of red...

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by acjama

The farmers and producers are not nuclear physicists and couldn't possibly evaluate the danger (or it's lack of). They were after the money, period, no matter what the cost to anybody else. With this level of ethics, how are they going to act any differently when the problem is BSE or dioxin, or whatever?

The think is, it wasn't the farmers and producers. In the case of the meat, they didn't know there was contamination to begin with. The cows the contaminated meat came from were not environmentally contaminated - they were contaminated because of a specific feed producer selling contaminated feed to the farms. There was no reason to even suspect the meat was contaminated as, from what I recall, the meat found to be contaminated wasn't from anywhere even close to the actual direct contamination. They tracked it to the feed.

Refusing to buy meat is basically closing your wallet to the wrong place, and hurting honest producers. The feed wholesaler was the one in the wrong, and now that this has happened, there is a lot of attention being given to where feed for the cows comes from.