#Radioactive Japan: "Soft Drink" from Iwate Prefecture Tested With 4.1 Bq/kg of Radioactive Cesium

(UPDATE) It turned out to be apple juice. Someone called the agency in Iwate who did the testing and asked. Why didn't they just say it upfront, that it was apple juice? That agency will probably be scolded by the Iwate prefectural government for sharing the information.

People have been freaking out on their own speculation that radioactive cesium must have been from the water itself.

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No details other than it was "soft drink" bottled in Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture, whose contamination had been initially denied by the city officials in the early days of the nuclear accident. It could be juice, it could be plain water. I can't find information on the Iwaki Prefecture's website.

One bottle tested had 4.1 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium, the other had 2.2 Bq/kg. The national safety standard for radioactive cesium is 10 Bq/kg.

In pre-Fukushima Japan, the level of radioactive cesium (Cs-137) in tap water in Iwate Prefecture was ND (not detected), according to the database by Japan Chemical Analysis Center.

Ministry of Health and Welfare's data on January 15, 2013 says these bottles of soft drink were sampled from those sold in retail stores:

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From a Japanese Blog: Female Junior High Student Died of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Ichinoseki, Iwate

The story was first broken by a blog writer in Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture, who runs a extracurricular prep school for students for entrance exams for upper schools. He has been criticized by net citizens who think it's highly inappropriate to write about high radiation levels at the school and the student's death in the same blogpost and that he is spreading a "baseless rumor".

Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture is about 170 kilometers north of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The city has an elevated level of radiation and radiation contamination compared to the rest of Iwate Prefecture (see Professor Hayakawa's map to the right, with Ichinoseki City in a red circle at the end of a red arrow).

According to the blogpost, the student attended a junior high school in Ichinoseki City where the max radiation on the school yard exceeded 10 microsieverts/hour, and where the air radiation inside some classrooms exceeded 0.5 microsieverts/hour. She died of subarachnoid hemorrhage last week.

From "Daiken Seminar" blog (10/27/2011):

今日のこの記事を公開するかどうか丸二日僕は悩んだ。多くの保護者の方や生徒から事実を伺った。僕に話して頂いた方々の気持ちは十分分かっている。しかしあまりのも衝撃的な事実に僕の筆は止まったままだった。

I agonized for two days whether or not to make this post public. I've asked many parents and students to ascertain the facts. I fully understand how they feel about the issue. But I just couldn't proceed in the face of this shocking revelation.

亡くなられたご両親のお気持ちを考えると、心痛極まりなく、おいそれと記事にできるようなことではなかった。

My heart aches for the parents of the deceased student, and it is not the topic that I could casually write.

しかし事実だけは書かなければならないと、ここにしたためる事にする。全て固有名詞は伏せさせて頂く。

But I feel the facts should be recorded, and here they are, though I'm withholding the real names.

市内の某中学校の３年生が、先週校舎内で倒れ、意識が無いまま病院に搬送され亡くなった。クモ膜下出血による死亡だった。

Last week, a 3rd-grade student [there are three grades in Japanese junior high schools] in a junior high school in the city collapsed in the school building. She was taken to the hospital, but died without ever regaining consciousness. The cause of death was subarachnoid hemorrhage.

その中学校は中庭が１０マイクロシーベルトを超える高濃度汚染ポイントがあった。亡くなった生徒は運動部に所属しており、活動場所もその中庭での運動が多くあったという。

There was a high radiation contamination spot in the school yard, exceeding 10 microsieverts/hour. The deceased student belonged to an athletic club, and the club activities often involved using the school yard.

学校ではその高濃度の線量が新聞で報道されるまで、いっさい生徒たちや保護者らには伝えられていなかった。

The school didn't inform the students and parents about the high radiation spot until it was reported in the newspaper. [In the comment section, he says the school didn't know about it until October.]

ここまでが客観的な事実である。僕はこれ以上のコメントも詮索も控えさせて頂く。

These are the objective facts. I will not comment or speculate further.

生徒によるとそこの中学校の先生方も、僕のこのブログを読んでいるとのことだった。教室によっては空間線量が0.5マイクロシーベルトを超えているという。

According to the students at this school, the teachers there also read my blog regularly. They said in some classrooms the air radiation level exceeds 0.5 microsievert/hour.

僕は動揺を通り越して、この話を聞いたあと、塾からの帰り道、車内で泣いてしまった。悔し涙である。

I was beyond upset. After I heard this story, on the way back from my school, I cried. Tears of deep regret.

He says in the comment section that the student had an underlying health issues [though she belonged to an athletic club...]. All the more reason, he says and I agree, that radiation should be avoided.

In his next post, he cites the official announcement of Ichinoseki City about radiation measurements in schools in the city (the latest update on October 20), and I have verified the source at the city's website.

The blog owner cut and pasted from the official announcement to show the locations that tested over 10 microsieverts/hour. One nursery school and three junior high schools registered 10 microsieverts/hour, and the annotations (the last column) say "maximum measurable with the instrument" (I added red circles to identify these schools). The city's instrument went overscale:

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