IS THERE TOO MUCH RADIATION IN RICE?

This blog warned about nuclear contamination of food in Japan very soon after the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis in northeast Japan on March 11. At that point, there was, as yet, no evidence or discussion of it. (Read the 20 earlier posts on this issue, beginning March 15). These fears have been confirmed. Excessive levels of radiation have been found in milk, vegetables, fruit, seaweed, fish, drinking water, animal feed - and, most recently, in beef.

It was only a matter of time before attention would turn to rice. Back on April 10, I (see "Can Rice be Contaminated?") I mentioned that the Government of Japan had advised farmers not to plant rice in certain areas because of this risk. We'll know soon whether such warnings were enough. The rice planted back in the spring is about to be harvested. Government-required testing of the rice is beginning in at least 14 prefectures in north and east Japan. About 40 percent of the annually harvested over 8 million tons of rice is grown in this area.

The testing will check levels of cesium in rice to make sure that they are not above the maximum government-imposed cap of 500 becquerels per kilogram. If any are, then shipments of rice from the area will be stopped.

Obviously farmers are anxious. But so are consumers. Rice is something that most people in Japan eat every day - including young children and pregnant women, who are at special risk. Cesium can build up in the body, resulting in higher risk for certain cancers as well as other health problems.

To your good health,
TSF

MORE RADIOACTIVE BEEF IN JAPAN

As I expected (see previous posts on this issue), more cattle in Japan have been found to have very high levels of radiation. This is bad news, but let me say right away for those readers from Japan: a few meals of this radiation-contaminated beef are unlikely to seriously affect your health. You would have to eat it regularly for a longer time.

The total number of cattle shipped now appears to be 648 from Fukushima Prefecture, plus about another 24 from Niigata Prefecture (this total is bound to increase further). At least 8 farms are involved. All are reported to have fed radiation-contaminated straw to the cattle. This straw was collected near the crippled Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant after the recent nuclear catastrophe. That is, it was exposed to radiation from the atmosphere. Some of it has been found to have extremely high levels of the radioactive isotope caesium.

So where did the contaminated beef end up? Basically, it was distributed widely in Japan. According to The Mainichi Daily News, of the cows from Fukushima farms, 199 were shipped to Tokyo, 192 to Hyogo Prefecture, nine to Gunma Prefecture, eight distributed within Fukushima Prefecture, two went to Tochigi Prefecture and one to Saitama Prefecture. The authorities are still tracing these shipments further and finding out if the meat has actually been sold to consumers or to institutional clients.

What this incident is also showing is that farmers in Japan are out of the post-disaster information loop. Six of the seven from Fukushima Prefecture said they hadn't even heard that they weren't supposed to feed their cattle straw that that been stored outside! I hope this situation is being addressed. If these cattle farmers hadn't heard, most likely others haven't either, and there is bound to be more contaminated feed around - including for other food animals and poultry.

To your good health,

TSF

WILL RADIATION-CONTAMINATED SEAWATER REACH THE UNITED STATES?

Looking at the statistics for this blog, I notice that quite a few people in the United States have been searching about radiation in food, including in fish. I don't think they are just worried about imported fish from Japan (although some people are certainly avoiding that). They are also wondering whether radiation in the sea near the crippled Fukushima power plant will reach U.S. waters and contaminate the fish here.

Japanese officials have now raised the severity of the Fukushima disaster to that of Chernobyl - a level 7. But, in terms of its impact on oceans, the effect is actually greater. Certain radionuclides have been found at higher levels in the Pacific than they were after Chernobyl in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. They got into the Pacific not only from the hundreds of thousands of tons of very radioactive water discharged into the ocean, but also from the air. So where does all this water go? To answer that question, I did a bit of searching to see what the oceanographers are predicting.

Yes, it does seem that the main currents from the Fukushima area of Japan move across the Pacific towards the west coast of the United States. I think they are the Kuroshio and the Oyashio, which converge (see NASA photo taken 100 miles north of the Fukushima plant). The contaminated seawater is expected to reach Hawaii in about a year and get as far as California in two to three years. It takes a while.

In the meantime, it will get more and more diluted. So it seems that Americans - including people here in California - shouldn't be too worried.

Let's just stick to focusing more on our home-grown toxins in seafood , such as those found the the San Francisco Bay and Santa Monica Bay of California - PCBs, DDT, dieldrin, chlordane and dioxins. And, any that our own nuclear plants discharge into the environment.

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