(UPDATED) Last Year's Green Tea from Tokyo Found with 210 Bq/kg of Radioactive Cesium (by the Old Testing Method)

(UPDATE from Security Tokyo on April 29, 2012:

Cs-134: 86 becquerels/kg
Cs-137: 128 becquerels/kg
Total: 214 becquerels/kg

Margin of error (Cs-137): 5 becquerels/kg

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The number is below the provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg that was in effect till April 1 this year, and would be above the new safety limit of 100 becquerels/kg if the testing method for green tea remained the same.

Well it didn't. Starting April 1, 2012, you only test green tea after it's brewed, and test the liquid. If that tests less than 10 becquerels/kg, it is supposed to be "safe" as far as the regulation goes.

But Security Tokyo, a private entity that has been conducting the very precise, professional measuring of radioactive materials using the calibrated germanium semiconductor detector, is testing the green tea ("Sayama-cha") made in Tokyo last year the old way - measuring the dry leaves.

From Security Tokyo's tweet (4/28/2012):

東京産の狭山茶：放射性セシウム210Bq/kg検出中。さらに測定を続けます。都内のあるスーパーで販売していました。飲用状態ではまだ測定していません。

Sayama-cha made in Tokyo: we're detecting 210 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. We are still measuring. The tea was being sold at a supermarket in Tokyo. We haven't tested the tea after it is brewed.

Judging from the limited result from Shizuoka Prefecture last year*, the brewed tea may have between 1% to 1.3% of radioactive cesium detected in the dry leaves. In this case, 2 to 3 becquerels/kg, totally "safe".

*For your information, here's the result in Shizuoka from last year. Unit is becquerels/kg:

Tea (dry leaves)　Brewed tea　(brewed tea/dry tea leaves)

614　　                 5.8                    （0.94%）

602　                   7.8                    （1.30%）

604　                   7.8                    （1.29%）

581　　                 7.6                    （1.31%）

654　                   7.3                    （1.12%）

The testing method to be used from this year on would in effect result in relaxing the safety limit for green tea IF the testing method remained the same. Now, green tea with up to 1,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium in dry leaves may "safely" pass the test (brewed tea with 10 becquerels/kg of cesium or less). It seems Shizuoka Prefecture and Saitama Prefecture (main growing region for Sayama-tea) will only announce the results of brewed tea this year.

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#Radiation in Japan: Saitama Forces School Children to Gargle with Sayama Tea to Prevent Flu

The "cold shutdown/accident is over" declaration by PM Noda on December 16 must have been a signal that unleashed the cold shutdown of intelligence in many parts of Japan. Here's one from Saitama Prefecture.

Sayama City, known for its "Sayama-cha" brand green tea, has been suffering as high levels of radioactive cesium continue to be detected from its teas. As if to help the city and dispel "baseless rumors" that are scaring the consumers from buying Sayama tea, Saitama Prefecture has just started forcing school children to gargle with powdered Sayama tea as an effort to instill good behavior in preventing cold and flu.

Problem: radioactive cesium has been detected from green tea grown in Sayama, some exceeding the national provisional limit of 500 becquerels/kg by a wide margin. In fact, it is rare to find Sayama tea without any radioactive cesium.

The latest testing done by Saitama Prefecture shows continued detection of radioactive cesium from almost all teas grown in Sayama.

Nonetheless, parents of the children who goes to school in Saitama received the notice like this:

It says:
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Gargling with Sayama-cha

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in the matter of educating our children. It is the time of the year again to do the gargling using Sayama tea to prevent influenza, and the powdered tea has been distributed [to the school]. Catechin, one of the main ingredients in green tea is said to prohibit the influenza virus. Therefore, our school will conduct "Let's gargle with Sayama tea" event as follows. We ask for your understanding and cooperation.

As an aside, the powdered Sayama tea distributed this time has been tested at a testing laboratory and confirmed safe.

1. Purpose of "Let's gargle with Sayama tea"

By doing the gargling using Sayama tea every day, to prevent the influenza infection, to form a desirable health habit, and to have a healthy, cheerful school life.

2. How to "Gargle with Sayama tea"

1) All children must each bring a cup to school to be kept in the classrooms: The cups are to be kept inside bags that children will bring, and children are to take the cups home over the weekend, wash them well, and bring them back to school the following week.

2) Each classroom is to have a supply of powdered Sayama tea: The classroom teachers are responsible for the storage and safe keeping of the tea.

3) All children will continue to gargle with Sayama tea once a day: After the PE classes and playing outside, children are supposed to dissolve powdered Sayama tea with tap water to make the solution, and gargle.

3. Please have ready:

A cup for gargling (cup made of plastics so that it doesn't easily break)
A bag to put the cup in.

"Let's gargle with Sayama tea" will start on Thursday December 15. We apologize for any inconvenience, but please have the cup and the bag ready by then.

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The whole thing reads like an extremely cynical joke.

"To form a healthy habit" with radioactive cesium tea powder?

"Apologize for inconvenience" of being party to subject their children to the known radioactive risk?

And insistence on tap water. Many public schools in Japan only allow tap water for drinking, for educational purposes. It was fine until March 11.

A dumb bomb exploded over Japan, for sure. Or maybe this is one of the effect of radiation exposure. I wonder what the parents did in Saitama Prefecture.

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2nd-Pick "Sayama-cha" Tea in Saitama: 84% Contained Radioactive Cesium, 9% Exceeded Provisional Safety Limit

The Saitama prefectural government decided to test all teas from all tea plantations in the prefecture (it is one of the major tea growing regions in Japan), after the Ministry of Health and Labor did the random testing of Saitama teas that were sold in the market in September and found radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg.

When the prefectural government tested the tea between May and July, they picked only 38 samples to test, and declared safe after they all tested "below the provisional safety limit".

On October 19, Saitama announced the result of its testing of the 2nd-pick teas (made from tea leaves picked after the new leaves were picked) of the prefecture's 1,081 brands of "Sayama-cha" tea at 216 tea growers and blenders.

Of 1,081 brands,

• 97 (or 9% of total) were found with radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional safety limit, as much as 2,063 becquerels/kg;
  
  
• 912 (or 84% of total) were found with radioactive cesium below the provisional safety limit, but as much as 490 becquerels/kg. (I'm counting the number of the brands again to make sure, but I don't think I'm far off.)
  

Again, the provisional safety limit is 500 becquerels/kg. Saitama Prefecture says it will affix the seal of testing on the packages of those teas that tested below the provisional safety limit, including the one with 490 becquerels/kg of cesium, so that the consumers will feel safe. All this label says is that the tea has been tested for radiation. The sunny mark at the top is supposed to indicate everything is OK.

They have already sold most of the teas that exceeded the provisional safety limit for cesium.

Below is the list of teas that exceeded the provisional safety limit, from the Saitama Prefecture website:

For the list of teas that tested below the provisional safety limit but still contained significant amount of radioactive cesium, go to the Saitama website.

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