Inzai City is located in the northwest corner of Chiba where the radiation levels remain elevated.
From Asahi Shinbun (2/23/2012):
政府は２３日、国の暫定基準（１キロあたり５００ベクレル）を超える放射性セシウムが検出されたとして、千葉県印西市で生産される原木シイタケ（露地栽培）の出荷停止を県知事に指示した。２２日に９９３ベクレルを検出していた。
On February 23, the Japanese government ordered the governor of Chiba Prefecture to halt shipment of shiitake mushrooms grown in Inzai City in Chiba Prefecture. 993 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, exceeding the national provisional limit of 500 becquerels/kg, was detected on February 22.
The amount of radioactive cesium detected is nearly 10 times the amount of the new safety limit to be put into effect on April 1.
Still, many people don't seem to care, and the schools continue to use shiitake mushrooms, raw or dried, in their school lunches to feed small children.
30-Day free trial by following the link.
Tokyo Time
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
7 comments:
Sad, remember a comment..the "mystical ability" to withstand radiation. Guess this is part of "Japanese Samuri Spirit"? Sad the children may not have the opportunity to actually GROW up..This is not a fairy tale ending up happy ever after.
So I live in this city and had slightly offended all my neighbors a long time ago. Basically, before 3/11 we would all share produce we grew. After seeing professors Hayakawa map I got a hold of a gieger counter and measured my area. Let's get say the rest of my neighbors stop offering us produce or fish caught off the pacific as I would always ask where it was from. Two things surprise me; one is that the neighbors still do this even though every single park in Inzai has had its top soil removed and still is just sitting in vinyl bags by fences as they have no where to put it. Secondly, why it take so long for the government to figure this out?
Yet more fucking stupidity from the japanese... Never ending
It would be useful to know if this measured wet or dried mushrooms, as the impact on the measurement is large. Mushrooms are 90% water, so the standard could be met for dried mushrooms merely by rehydrating them.
These are fresh mushrooms. Multiplier they seem to use in Japan to figure out the dried mushroom Bq/kg is 7.
Probably these mushrooms were grown in halls and not in the open.
Mushrooms collected in the forests will probably be way more contaminated.
The area in Germany where I live was very hard hit by Chernobyl fallout (it rained down here).
Sometimes mushrooms collected in the forests still measure around 10000 Bq/kg. The health ministry here strongly advises to avoid non-commercially-grown mushrooms even 25 years after the accident.
I am sure that similiarly radiant mushrooms could be found in the Fukushima forests regularly too, if anybody cared for regular surveying.
It may be relevant to note that fungi do seem to preferentially take up cesium from the soil, as has been noted by a Japanese researcher in another story covered on this blog.
Combine that knowledge with Atomfritz's useful little tidbit about ongoing mushroom contamination in Germany, one might reasonably want to avoid mushrooms in Japan for a little while, perhaps a century or two.
Post a Comment