2077 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium from Dried Shiitake "Made in Japan"

Sure. Iwate Prefecture is Japan alright. Since the company who packaged the dried shiitake claims it has mixed shiitake harvested in different parts of Japan (never mind that they did say the shiitake are mostly from Iwate Prefecture), the label can claim "made in Japan".

The photo is from the press release from Yokohama City. (Click to enlarge.)

From Sankei Shinbun Kanto local version (2/9/2012):

セシウム基準値４倍超え乾燥シイタケ、横浜のスーパーで７袋販売　

7 packets of dried shiitake mushrooms with radioactive cesium 4 times the provisional safety standard sold in Yokohama supermarket

横浜市は９日、港北区内のスーパーで販売されていた袋入り乾燥シイタケから、食品衛生法の定める暫定基準値１キロ当たり５００ベクレルの４倍を超える同２０７７ベクレルの放射性セシウムを検出したと発表した。すでに７袋が販売されており、市は出荷した加工業者のある静岡県に通報、販売したスーパーに回収を指示した。

Yokohama City announced on February 9 that 2,077 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from dried mushrooms sold at a supermarket in Kohoku-ku in the city. The provisional safety limit is 500 becquerels/kg. 7 packets have already been sold. The city notified Shizuoka Prefecture where the packaging company is located, and ordered the supermarket to recall the packets.

　独自に調査した市民からの通報を受け市が９日に検査した。高濃度のセシウムが検出されたのはスーパーチェーン「ビッグヨーサン」の綱島樽町店が販売していた賞味期限が来年１月１０日の乾燥シイタケの袋詰め「小粒どんこ」。静岡県藤枝市の「大塚フード」が８０グラムずつ袋詰めして出荷した同スーパーの専売品。加工業者によると、乾燥シイタケの産地は主に岩手県という。

After being notified by a citizen who measured the radioactivity [of this dried shiitake] on his own, the city conducted its testing on February 9. The Tsunashima-Tarumachi store of a supermarket chain "Big Yosun" sold these mushrooms with effective date of 1/10/2013. Otsuka Food located in Fujieda City in Shizuoka Prefecture packaged the mushrooms in 80 gram packets, which was sold exclusively at the supermarket chain. According to the packaging company, the mushrooms are mostly from Iwate Prefecture.

　スーパーによると、綱島樽町店では２０袋を入荷し、うち７袋を販売。ほか２店でも店頭に並んだが、購入者はいないという。

According to the supermarket chain, their Tsunashima-Tarumachi store had purchased 20 packets, and sold 7 packets. 2 other stores also had the packets but none of them have been sold, according to the chain.

市によると、この乾燥シイタケをそのまま８０グラム食べた場合の人体への被曝（ひばく）線量は、最も大きい０歳で０・００３８３３ミリシーベルト。１３歳以上では０・００２５７２４ミリシーベルトと推計され、水で戻した場合の放射性セシウム濃度は、おおむね１０分の１になるとみられる。

According to the city, if one eats 80 grams of this dried shiitake the internal radiation for 0-year-old would be 0.003833 millisievert, and 0.0025724 millisievert for people 13 years old and older. It is considered that if you re-hydrate the shiitake, the density of radioactive cesium would drop to about one-tenth.

　厚生労働省が来年度の施行に向けてまとめた食品中の放射性物質に関する新たな基準値案では、食品による内部被曝線量の限度を年間１ミリシーベルト以下としている。

According to the new safety standard guidelines that the Ministry of Health and Labour has compiled to take effect in the new fiscal year [starting on April Fool's Day], the internal radiation exposure limit is 1 millisievert per year or less.

As if 80 grams of dried shiitake from Iwate with radioactive cesium is all you eat the whole year.

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Test Result on Strontium-90 Detection in Yokohama

Here's the image of the test report by Isotope Research Institute in Yokohama City:

Strontium-90: 195 becquerels/kg

From the same sample, cesium-134 and cesium-137 were also detected earlier.

Cesium-134: 29,775 becquerels/kg
Cesium-137: 33,659 becquerels/kg
Total cesium: 63,434 becquerels/kg

Isotope Research Institute didn't start testing for radioactive strontium until August 20, according to the Institute's website. Thus the time lag.

At the Institute, it costs 65,000 yen (US$847) (pre-tax) to test one sample for strontium-90 (no separate testing for strontium-89), and it takes one week. No volume discount, the webpage says.

The ratio of strontium-90 to cesium-137 in this case is about 0.58%. In comparison, the same ratio from the samples taken in Fukushima Prefecture was between slightly less than 0.1% to 8.2%. In other words, the ratio varies too much to discern any pattern.

Yokohama City has said it is testing for strontium in the sample taken from the same apartment rooftop but with much higher cesium density (105,600Bq/kg total cesium). But remember there was no official announcement about this high cesium detection because "the apartment building is a private property", according to the city. We'll see if Yokohama will announce anything about strontium-90.

The Yokohama Mayor is having her regular Wednesday press conference, but she has refused to let independent journalists including Yasumi Iwakami, who broke the news, attend the press conference. She only wants to deal with the "press club" members.

For my recent posts on strontium-90 in Yokohama City, go here and here.

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105,600 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium from Apartment Bldg Rooftop in Yokohama City

The apartment building is located in the same Kohoku-ku in Yokohama City where 63,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found also from the rooftop of another apartment building, and 42,000 becquerels/kg was found from the dirt around the side drain on the road.

It looks like this person had the dirt on the rooftop tested on his own, and posted the test result sheet on his blog.

Cesium-134: 49,900 becquerels/kg
Cesium-137: 55,700 becquerels/kg
Total radioactive cesium: 105,600 becquerels/kg

Meanwhile, this is how the Yokohama City workers (or the contract workers) "cleaned" the highly contaminated (42,000 becquerels/kg cesium) dirt from the side of the road. No protection, no masks, no rubber boots.

Yokohama City Assembly recently voted down the citizens' petition asking the city not to accept radiation-contaminated disaster debris from Tohoku by the majority vote by the DPJ and LDP and Komei Party.

The city temporarily halted the dumping of radioactive sludge ashes into the ocean as the citizens' protests were fast and furious once they knew about the scheme, but the mayor in the press conference took pains to emphasize that only thing that had gone amiss was that the city officials under her clearly didn't "explain" well enough to the Yokohama residents living in the area around the final dumping site in Minami Honmoku Pier in advance. "We should have explained better to soothe the fear and anxiety of the residents", she said.

The mayor, who fed 80,000 elementary school children in the city with radioactive beef, then went to an APEC's women's meeting in San Francisco and appealed Yokohama. (As what?) And she wants her official residence renovated by city's taxpayers' money.

Something seems to me to be really out of whack in Yokohama City. I've heard Mayor Hayashi speak in the press conference. She speaks well, very dry, businesslike. Maybe that's all she does well - to speak well. Understanding what the issues are or what's at stake is for someone else to do for her.

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63,000 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium from Rooftop of Apartment Bldg in Yokohama City

It made the national news ONE MONTH AFTER a private citizen measured the air radiation level on his own and had the dirt tested with his own money.

According to TV Asahi's "Morning Bird" news variety show on September 19, 63,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from the dirt sediment on the rooftop of a 5-story apartment building in Kohoku-ku in Yokohama City. It is the same Kohoku-ku where 42,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found near the side drain on the road.

The person who measured the radiation tweeted the result as early as August 15.

The air radiation at the spot was 1.8 microsievert/hour. The result of the soil analysis:

Cesium-134: 29,775 becquerels/kg
Cesiu-137: 33.659 becquerels/kg
Total cesium: 63,434 becquerels/kg

The show's commentators are saying "Oh... what about Tokyo? I thought we're safe."

Duh.

(H/T shusse)

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