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

HIGH LEVELS OF RADIATION FOUND IN GREEN TEA

Efforts continue to contain the situation at the crippled Fukushima Daichii nuclear power plant in Japan. I just looked at Ministry of Health's latest published results on testing of food for iodine, cesium-134 and cesium-137. I found the levels of radionuclides to be surpisingly low for the most part, although clearly some rivers (and fish) are becoming quite contaminated.

But the news hitting the wires is the discovery of high levels of radiation in a green tea shipment at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris yesterday. The tea had come from Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture. Apparently the detected level of the radionuclide cesium were 1,038 becquerels per kg of tea. This is about double the European Union's maximum allowed radioactive load in foods (cesium 134 and cesium 137). (But note - I have found no official statement.)

This Shizuoka Prefecture produces some 40% of Japan's green tea. Some ten days ago, the Prefecture announced that it had found levels of 679 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram of tea from a producer 355 Km from the nuclear plant. The tea farmers in the area are very upset since their livelihoods are at stake. Shipment of tea from this producer was stopped, and testing expanded. But apparently some got through from somewhere. Or so it seems - if these reports are true.

But relax - customs officials detained the tea and it did not enter the marketplace. At least this shipment didn't. Who knows what other countries received some from the same or neighboring producers. I certainly know that here in the U.S. we import green tea from Japan. I just finished drinking some...

To your good health,

TSF