HOW DANGEROUS IS RADIATION IN GREEN TEA?

We tend to think of green tea as a healthy drink. Initially, I found the taste a little difficult to become used to, but am now drinking a couple of cups a day. I have friends who drink ten cups or more. All those wonderful antioxidants that our bodies need! Not only has green tea been drunk for thousands of years in countries such as China, India, Thailand and Japan, but it has been used as a medicine to treat anything and everything, ranging from flatulence to heart conditions. Besides, it is supposed to be good for your complexion.

Now we are reading reports that some of the tea grown in Japan may be accumulating high levels of radionuclides from the crippled Fukushima Dachii nuclear power plant (see yesterday's post). The tea growers from Shizuoka Prefecture, where much of Japan's tea is grown, say this kind of concern is ridiculous. So do some members of the opposition party.

After all, dry tea is a concentrated product. When tea leaves are fresh, and therefore heavier, testing would show lower levels of unhealthy radionuclides such as cesium-137 and 134. And besides, when you add water to dry tea leaves, it becomes even more diluted, thus lowering levels of radionuclides to acceptable levels.

Yes, all this is probably true, but still, I can't say I like the idea of drinking my "healthy" green tea with a touch of nuclear contaminants.

And you had better not chew on the green tea leaves, just in case! Some people do. Not even in your chewing gum, or those delicious Trader Joe's green tea candies.

To your good health,

TSF

RADIATION IN FOOD: THE FACTS ABOUT CESIUM-137

Since the Japan disaster, we have been hearing a lot about radiation exposure in the news, including about the isotope cesium-137 . Several recent posts on this blog have also mentioned it. But what is it? And, how does it affect us? I am not an expert on cesium-137, so I did some research using reliable websites, including those of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is what I came up with.

Cesium 137 is a common radioactive form of the metal cesium (cesium 134 can be present in food, but is less common). It can be in a lot of other places as well. Cesium 137 is used in some industrial processes and in certain treatments for cancer. It can be found in hospital and research laboratory waste, which is usually safely disposed of. But, as we know, it is also released into the environment by nuclear reactor accidents. This happened at the Chernobyl disaster, and has also been occurring over the past month at the Fukushima power plant.

From the environment, cesium-137 can enter growing food. Leafy vegetables and grass tend to pick it up first from the air, helped by wind currents and rain. Cattle and other animals eat grass, and from there it gets into our milk and meat. Some is also absorbed by soil and water and enters root vegetables and fish. Unlike iodine-131, which can last as little as 8 days, cesium-137 has a half-life of about 30 years. Cleanup of soil or lakes or rivers is very difficult and costly. It also creates a high level of risk for the workers doing it.

The problem is that you cannot feel, smell or taste cesium in your food or water. Unless you use special equipment to check for it, you don't know if you are being exposed. If you do ingest it, this metal is apparently easily absorbed by the GI system. Some would be excreted through urine, but a portion would build up in your body, especially in the muscles. The cells lining the intestine and stomach are particularly vulnerable.

Exposure to enough cesium 137 can raise your lifetime risk of cancer fractionally, for example, from 20% to 24%. It can also cause genetic and developmental problems or result in other damage to organs. In the short term, sizeable exposure (unlikely with food or water) may give you headache, diarrhea, bleeding gums, nausea, vomiting and even fever. The size of the dose, and how regularly and how long you keep eating the contaminated food will determine how much you are affected overall.

As with almost all contaminants in food, health effects of radiation will partly depend on who you are: your age and general health, although case studies have documented mysterious exceptions to the rule. Again, as with many contaminants, if the doses are few and small, the cesium-137 will not affect your health. But if your consumption of cesium-contaminated food is "acute" or regular over a long enough period of time, especially if you are also getting radiation from other sources (such as the environment, X-rays, your occupation, international flights, or whatever), it can add to these other sources of cesium and damage your health.

Yes, there are several tests for cesium-137, that can measure levels of it in your urine, blood, bones, feces, hair or skin. But don't expect such tests to be widely available. Most medical laboratories don't do them. If diagnosed with dangerous levels of cesium-137 in your body, treatments are available.

TSF

CAN RICE BE CONTAMINATED?

We almost never hear of contaminated grains, including contaminated rice. But rice can be contaminated - like any other food. This can be a huge risk, since rice is the staple food for about half the world. Children, as well as adults, may eat large amounts of it regularly, particularly if they are poor and can afford little else. Or, you may be well off, but be more exposed to risks in rice if you go on one of the rice diets to lose weight, as a friend of mine did.

Many of the nastier things that have cropped up in rice have been absorbed into the rice from the soil they grow in. In Japan, it's now rice planting time, and the government has issued restrictions about planting in some areas affected by radiation from the Fukushima power plant, because of fears that the rice will pick up the radioisotope cesium-137 from the soil. It's sad for the rice farmers but good that care is being taken to keep the food supply safe.

But radiation is not the only hazard that rice can pick up. When I was doing the research for The Safe Food Handbook, one of the issues I became most absorbed in, and contacted top researchers world wide, was the risk of arsenic in rice. As we know, arsenic is one of the worst heavy metals. It can be present in soil, as when arsenic-based presitcides have been used on previous crops such as cotton, to control the boll weevel. Certain plants absorb arsenic, others do not. Rice is one that does.

Quite high levels of arsenic have indeed been found in rice from certain parts of south-central United States, and in some - not all - rice from countries such as Bangaldesh and India. Organic growing conditions will not guarantee that the rice will be low in arsenic, as it can stay there for very long periods of time.

These are just two possible contaminants in rice. And wouldn't it - brown rice, and especially rice bran, are likely to be more risky. Nutrition and food safety do not always agree.

TSF