Saturday, May 19, 2012

24 Bq/kg of #Radioactive Cesium from Green Tea (Brewed) in Kanuma City, Tochigi, Highest Level So Far This Year


If the old testing method is used, this tea could contain 2,400 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium in dry leaves.

The other sample from Kanuma City in Tochigi Prefecture also exceeded the new safety limit for brewed tea (10 Bq/kg), with 12 Bq/kg of cesium.

Checking the Kanuma City's website, there is no mention of this test result, even though it was in the news on May 18, 2012 (Shimotsuke Shinbun). Instead, the page for Kanuma's agricultural products has this interesting mention of how to take care of the tea plantations while the shipment of the tea from the city is halted (it has been halted since June last year, after the fresh leaves of tea from the city tested above the provisional safety limit):

茶畑の管理について

通常通り行うことが望ましいと考えられます。刈り取った茶葉、せん定枝は農地に埋却してもかまいません。

Management of the tea plantations

It is considered desirable to do as you have normally done. As for the tea leaves and branches that have been pruned, there is no problem burying them in the farm land.


I believe many tea growers in Kanto did the deep pruning after their tea was found with high radioactive cesium last year. But if they buried the contaminated cuttings in the soil, they may have simply (re-)introduced radioactive cesium in soil which has been absorbed by the tea plants.

There are people (including Professor Hayakawa of Gunma University) who are speculating that radioactive cesium in green tea this year is the result of strong winds in spring that have blown dust particles off the land which landed on the tea leaves. And there are people who argue radioactive cesium was absorbed through the surfaces of old leaves and sent to the roots, so it is now in the tea plants.

In case of Kanuma City, it may have been absorbed from the roots, in addition to the absorption from old leaves from last year.

To freshen up your memory, Kanuma City in Tochigi Prefecture was the one that fed elementary school children with local beef last October as a PR stunt to prove how safe their beef was. More recently, the city's mayor is very eager to accept the ashes from disaster debris incineration because the national government would foot the bill for upgrading the city's aging final disposal site that needs major repairs.

11 comments:

Atomfritz said...

"...there is no problem burying [contaminated tea leaves] in the farm land."

Contamination, Decontamination, Recontamination.
I am speechless.

Anonymous said...

Me too, speechless. An astonishingly low level of understanding. This city is not alone. The whole trend calls the quality of Japanese education into question, especially basic science education.

Perhaps the misinformation campaign of many decades by the gov't and nuclear industry is working well. So is the Japanese education system, that values obedience and trains students into not questioning teachers/authorities and not thinking independelty. (I know, I was schooled in Japan. Those who didn't want to comply got out of the country.)

The Japanese leaders in the government, nuclear industry, and education should be be proud their efforts are paying off. But this is a hell of way to kill a once successful country and they are doing well at it. Very very sad...

Alessandro said...

This uniformation in thinking is a sign of stupidity imho. Now I'm asking myself: how can Japan be so tecnologically advanced??
Not that all these years Japanese technology was only an inflated marketing advertisement?
Cars that are supposed to be the best while they're not, for example...

Anonymous said...

Not thinking for themselves goes both ways... people believe what authority figures tell them, whether it is the government or nuclear industry experts, or it is prominent anti-nuke activists or experts. And deride and attack those who dare question either category of authority. Total obedience or else.

Anonymous said...

"Low dose ionising radiation IS harmful to health"

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/life/health/low-dose-ionising-radiation-is-harmful-to-health/

Anonymous said...

'To freshen up your memory, Kanuma City in Tochigi Prefecture was the one that fed elementary school children with local beef last October as a PR stunt to prove how safe their beef was. More recently, the city's mayor is very eager to accept the ashes from disaster debris incineration because the national government would foot the bill for upgrading the city's aging final disposal site that needs major repairs.'

No, the mayor is very eager to line his pockets with free dosh because his town is also stark bollok naked and has no other income.
In fact this is the state of the nation. Each area (with a nuke power staion) cannot afford to survive without the handouts of nuclear power companies. lol. Talk about being held to ransom. Pathetic old git (I'll guess) who has never had a real job in his life except support people who promise to line his pockets, pay for his golf and pay his hostess bar bills. These people need stringing up. Extreme? Not if you consider his feeeding innocent chidren with poison.

The land is unihabitable and the food is INEDIBLE. Get over it.

Anonymous said...

Hey! Where's my comment?

Anonymous said...

>There are people (including Professor Hayakawa of Gunma University) who are speculating that radioactive cesium in green tea this year is the result of strong winds in spring that have blown dust particles off the land which landed on the tea leaves. And there are people who argue radioactive cesium was absorbed through the surfaces of old leaves and sent to the roots, so it is now in the tea plants.

What about cesium being absorbed through the roots and sent to the leaves? Isn't soil contaminated?

Anonymous said...

Why dont they just dump all the radioactive materials and wastes back to Fukushima ...after all it is a no man's land anymore for centuries.

In fact Japan can make Fukushima the dumping site for world's nuclear waste and help to control the site from the money earned. Many such materials can be better put in a place no one will be around rather than dispersing all over the world or Japan.

Vicente said...

I would think it
would be difficult to make any generalization about chinese green tea.
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Unknown said...

We should all be cautious in consuming brewed green tea today or you might ingest the ones with radioactive cesium, Temp Agency Sydney

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