Thursday, March 21, 2013

#Radioactive Japan: Number of Food Items to Be Tested for Radiation Will Be Reduced by 25%, First Major Revision Since the Start of Nuclear Accident


It looks like the nuclear accident is so behind them in Japan, rat or no rat. Ministry of Health and Labor announced that the radioactivity testing for food items will be scaled down significantly, by exempting 34 items from testing.

That's 25% of food items that have been regularly tested since the start of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.

They have been testing only 132 food items to begin with.

What's puzzling is that certain fruits that have consistently been found with elevated amounts (if not exceeding the safety standard of 100 Bq/kg) of radioactive cesium are going to be exempted - peaches, apples, and pears.

From Kyodo News (3/19/2013):

食品のセシウム検査縮小へ 厚労省

Testing for radioactive cesium in food to be scaled down, Ministry of Health and Labor says

 政府は19日、自治体が実施している食品の放射性セシウム検査で、葉もの野菜や、果実の一部とイワシなど魚類の一部などを4月以降、原則として重点検査対象から除外すると発表した。厚生労働省によると、対象食品数(品目・類)は132から98に減る。重点検査の大幅見直しは初めて。

On March 19, the national government announced that certain leafy vegetables, fruits, and certain kinds of fish will be exempt from the tests conducted by the municipalities for radioactive cesium, starting April. The number of food items to be tested will be reduced from the current 132 to 98. It is the first time that the radiation test for food has been significantly revised.

 同省は「検査で放射性セシウムが検出されない食品が多くなっているため」としている。

The reason given by the ministry is that radioactive cesium is not detected any more in increasing number of food items.

 具体的には、野菜類ではホウレンソウやレタス、キャベツ、ダイコン、ジャガイモなど、果実ではモモ、リンゴ、ナシなど、魚類ではコウナゴ(イカナゴの稚魚)、イワシ、サバ、ブリなどが除外される。

For example, the items to be excluded from the testing are spinach, lettuce, cabbage, daikon, potatoes and others for the vegetables, peach, apple, pear and others for the fruits, young lancefish, sardine, mackerel, yellowtail and others for the fish.


Well, as you know, peaches, apples, pears and persimmons from Fukushima will be sold to Thailand as "gourmet fruits" for the rich. JETRO just announced that Malaysia will no longer require the radiation test certificates for the food items from Japan. Rich Malaysians will get to eat those "gourmet fruits", too.

Information at the website of Ministry of Health and Labor is as clear as mud. You can't readily tell which vegetables, fruits and fish have been exempted by the Nuclear Disaster Response Headquarters. You have to know exactly what they have been testing (132 items) to know what will be exempt, as the ministry's press release only confirms what are still to be tested.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why puzzling that they exempt the food items that were consistently been found with elevated amounts? Isn't it most reasonable thing to do if y ou want to reduce the damage of 'baseless rumours'?

After dropping these items you can proudly show and advertise that "all food items that are being tested are save for consumption". And you can not be sued for lying, since you say the truth. Nice.

The non-thinking majority will be happy to hear and to forget about what had happened.

Sadly, the next generations will have to pay the price.....

John Bernhart said...

Such hypocrisy: demanding 100% of US beef be tested and not testing 100% of 100% of Japanese agricultural production. Personally, I'd rather die from forgetting who I am than from painful cancer. As I said before, I do not concede to the government the right to tell me what is safe. I want 0% radiation in 100% of my diet.

Anonymous said...

Hello John,
Agreed. Hypocrisy, denial, stupidity, and pure evil are the name of the game. Power outage baloney bananas radioactive rats and nuclear technogeeks...

Rense & Wilcox discuss Fukushima power black out fiasco
http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rense_Wilcox_032013.mp3

Richard Wilcox
http://wilcoxrb99.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

Measure no radiation, report no radiation.
See no evil. Hear no evil.
Inspire the next. Lie. Smile. Walk it down.Talk it down. Turn truth into baseless rumours.
Goeballs would be proud.

Anonymous said...

WTF are GEOBALLS??? ↑

Anonymous said...

Goebbels

Anonymous said...

Oh right, Geobbels. I thought it was another sexual innuendo written by our resident Finnish troll.

VyseLegendaire said...

1. Government 'safety limit' on radiation in food was and is baseless.
2. Not enough foods are tested, and not enough types of radionuclides, for this to be anything more than a simple token gesture to 'reassure the public.'

Same old, same old.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, there are still many people out there who think that if the mainstream media doesn't report it, it can't be true or cannot be happening.

Anonymous said...

Worse, "contamination" (汚染) seems to be a dirty word. I mentioned it only few times, respectively when talking about the school swimming pool, the kindergarten sand and some wild boar meat; in all cases I have been greeted by wide open eyes saying "hush hush".

Beppe

Anonymous said...

Geobbels has nothing to do with it:

http://www.john-friend.net/2013/03/was-hitler-zionist-stooge.html

http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2012/06/portraits-of-masters-of-porn-the-systematic-promotion-of-recreational-sex-sexual-callousness-and-sexual-deviancy/

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-myth-of-american-meritocracy/

Anonymous said...

3:52 PM Okay, as long as you are not saying Geobbels was a Jesuit.

Scott said...

The influence of Japan agriculture is to strong to ignore. Too much money on the line and the TPP talks and all. This is probably to hush the farm mafia up.

Anonymous said...

@3:52 pm, regarding your second link, if you think the Jews are screwed-up sexually, I’ve got one word for you: Japan.

Anonymous said...

Today prime minister Abe mentioned that he wants to fight even harder the "damaging rumours". Maybe this curtailment of the analysis is part of measures aimed at stemming those rumors.
No wait, government analysis are not supposed to be rumors and actually stamping food items with their contamination level should rather help to eradicate rumors.
Oh well.. never mind.

Beppe

Anonymous said...

Dear laprimavera,

I wanted to email you but I couldn't find an address anywhere, so I'm writing this comment. For the many of us (lurkers like myself included), I am sure there is great interest in hearing what suggestions you or your readers have for taking reasonable precautions in today's Japan. Could you perhaps dedicate a blog post to this topic. For example: If you were to visit tokyo today, what foods might you be better off avoiding? Is there a way to read the labels of products to identify where they were grown (and which areas to pass on)? Do you still need similar precautions if you travel west to oasaka or even fukuoka? Thank you if you can make the time to comment on this, or if anyone can point in the right direction. And thank you again for this blog.

Anonymous said...

Almost forgot: here's a link I think you would be interested in "genpatsu rikon" http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/24/divorce-after-fukushima-nuclear-disaster

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