Saturday, August 20, 2011

Wild Boar in Miyagi Prefecture Was Found With 2,200 Becquerels/Kg of Radioactive Cesium

It adds to the beef conundrum from yesterday's post that the cow that wasn't fed contaminated rice hay. This wild boar was most likely eating the farm crops, wild plant roots and fruits, and occasional maggots and insects.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (8/19/2011):

宮城県は19日、県猟友会の会員が捕獲したイノシシの肉から、暫定規制値(1キロ・グラムあたり500ベクレル)を超す1キロ・グラムあたり2200ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出されたと発表した。

Miyagi Prefecture announced on August 19 that 2,200 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found in the meat of a wild boar caught by a member of the hunters' association in the prefecture. The provisional safety limit [for cesium in food] is 500 becquerels/kg.

 イノシシ肉は市場に流通していないが、県は野生動物の食用摂取を控えるように呼びかけている。発表によると、イノシシは7日に同県南部の角田市で捕獲され、同会が16日に検査機関に検査を依頼した。イノシシは通常、土中の虫や畑の作物を餌にしている。

Wild boar meat is not sold in the market, but the Miyagi prefectural government is asking people to refrain from consuming the game meat. According to the announcement by the prefectural government, the wild boar in question was caught in Kakuda City in southern Miyagi on August 7, and the hunters' association asked a testing laboratory to do the analysis [for radioactive materials] on August 16. Wild boars normally eat worms in the soil and the field crops.

But don't worry about minor details like wild boars being radioactive (never mind that they don't eat rice hay). Miyagi has a big plan for the future, once the governor's "recovery and reconstruction" plan is approved in the prefectural assembly. One of the central ideas of Governor Murai is to build a big museum to commemorate the earthquake/tsunami of March 11, and build a memorial park around the museum. His other ideas include high-rise towers and high-rise residential buildings to separate out the living space and work space (farmers and fishermen would "commute" to their work which would be organized like corporation).

It's a great recovery plan for the area's general contractors who usually have to team up with the national general contractors to share the project. Great for big agribusiness too, if they don't mind radiation in the soil, as this wild boar clearly demonstrates exists in abundance.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

for example, since Tchernobyl it is forbidden to eat wild boar in germany (it eats many mushrooms)

Anonymous said...

don't know how it is in Japan, but there's lots of them in Germany and Austria. their favorite food is truffle that they dig for. fungi are known for accumulating more radioactivity than other plants, therefor boars are the most contaminated animals of all. German students could prove after Chernobyl it is possible to reduce the amount of Cs137 in the animals muscle tissue by at least 84,2% by feeding them prussian-blue.

http://www.nirs.go.jp/data/pdf/prussian_blue.pdf

link to the study in german, p.167 summary in english:
http://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/8265/1/Meinel_Katja.pdf

Viola said...

Welcome to the club :-(

In 2009/2010 hunting season, according to the Bavarian Ministry of Agriculture, the rate of tested boar that exeeded legal limits was about 25%... And that's only about the tested ones. Some counties didn't even test although the radiation was/is quite high. Out of ca. 42.000 boars being hunted, only 10 percent were tested (since it's not required to do the testing).
That's 25 years after Chernobyl.

Oh and: the above post is not true; you can get boar in nearly every restaurant in Germany during the hunting season. Not that this fact would make things better...

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

What's the legal limit for radioactive cesium in Germany?

Anonymous said...

for wild boars 600Bq/kg

Anonymous said...

Some mushroom types in the south have up to 1000Bq/kg even now:

http://www.bfs.de/de/ion/nahrungsmittel/pilze_wildbret.html

Anonymous said...

to be more precise (from the above study)

370Bq/kg for milk, milk products and baby food, 600Bq/kg for any other food.

meat with higher values has to get rid of. if the reading is over 500Bq/kg there has to be a second measuring at one of eight qualified and reglarly monitored measuring stations. if it is really over 600Bq/kg the hunter/owner can get compensation by government.

Stock said...

Orwellian Madness, wish I was religious

Viola said...

A new EU-act changed the values, enacted 4/13/2011:(all in Bq/kg)
This act was reconsidered after limits went up harshly in Germany (I don't know about other countries) and a lot of organisations complained. Before always means the original design of the act.

Strontium isotopes (like Sr-90):
75- food for infants/children
125- milk and milk products
750- other food
750- food of low relevance* (7500 before)
125- liquids

Iodine isotopes (like I-131):
100- food for infants/children (150 before)
300- milk and milk products (500 before)
2000- other food
2000- food of low relevance (20.000 before)
300- liquids (500 before)

Alpha-emitter like plutoniumisotopes and transplutonium-elements (like Pu-293 or Am-241):
1- food for infants/children
1- milk and milk products /20 before)
10- other food (80 before)
10- food of low relevance (800 before)
1- liquids (80 before)

All other nuclides with a half-live >10 days (like Cs-134, Cs-137 without C-14, H-3):
200- food for infants/children /400 before)
200- milk and milk products (1000 before)
500- other food (1250 before)
500- food of low relevance (12.000 before)
200- liquides (200 before)

Limits for animal feed:
Caesium- 500
Iodine- 2000

*I wonder what "food of low relevance" might be... vegetables, accordingto rumors the south-Germans are meat-devourers^^?

Anonymous said...

So all around the world people worship little pieces of paper with pictures of kings and queens and presidents on them.

And in a few generations all natural childbirth will end.

Anonymous said...

Per one article, Germany wild game (boars) are tested -the huner takes them to a center which checks out the meat for radiation. If radiation found at above accepted levels, the government "buys" the animal. Japan needs to do the same...

Anonymous said...

wild boars of Bayerischer Wald, (Germany, Bavière), 7 000 becquerels par kilo… the government is anxious(august 2010)(sorry link in french) : http://www.developpementdurable.com/insolite/2010/08/A5293/lallemagne-inquietee-par-des-sangliers-radioactifs.html

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