Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Update on #Radioactive Beef in Kanagawa: Beef Sold in June in Fujisawa City Tested 3,240 Becquerels/Kg Cesium

On June 3, a meat shop in Fujisawa City in Kanagawa Prefecture bought 304.5 kilograms of beef from a cow raised in the same cattle farm in Minami Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture whose meat tested 3,200 becquerels/kg cesium on July 9. The meat shop sold some to their retail customers, but most of it was sold to shops in other cities including Kawasaki City and Sagamihara City. The meat also went to Minami-ku in Yokoyama City, and some unnamed locations in Tokyo.

The beef contained 3,240 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

So, the entire meat from this one cow, 304.5 kilograms of it, could have contained 986,580 becquerels of radioactive cesium. (I hope the meat shop owner and employees didn't get the secondary radiation from the meat, if that's ever possible. Would anyone care to figure out what kind of surface radiation would this have measured?)

As I reported in the previous post, Yokohama City fed the school children with beef from Fukushima until July 11.

From Asahi Shinbun Kanagawa version (7/13/2011):

藤沢市保健所の調査では、市内の肉店が6月3日、問題の牛肉を1頭分(304・5キロ)購入。一部を店頭で小売りし、大半を川崎市や相模原市などの肉店に卸した。残っていた肉から1キロあたり3240ベクレル(基準値は500ベクレル)のセシウムが検出された。

According to the Fujisawa City Health Center, a meat shop in the city bought the beef (304.5 kilograms) from a cow [from the same cattle farm in Minami Sanriku City, Fukushima Prefecture]. Part of it was sold at the shop to the retail customers, and the bulk of it was sold to meat shops in Kawasaki City, Sagamihara City, and other places. From the remaining meat, 3,240 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected. The provisional limit is 500 becquerels/kg.

 相模原市保健所は12日までに、同市南区のスーパーやレストランなど3店への流通を確認。計77キロ分すべてが販売済みだった。市は今後も確認を続けるが、「健康被害を生じる水準ではない」(生活衛生課)と静観の構えだ。

By July 12, the Sagamihara City Health Center confirmed that the beef had been sold to 3 locations in one of its wards, Minami-ku. They are supermarkets and restaurants. 77 kilograms of beef had already been sold. The city will continue to investigate, but they are not very concerned, as "it is not the level to cause any damage to health".

 横浜市も南区の食肉店への流通を確認。約64キロのうち約11キロ分が残っており保存を指示した。

Yokohama City has also confirmed that it was sold to a meat shop in Minami-ku. Of 64 kilograms of the meat that the shop bought, 11 kilograms of the beef still remains at the shop, and the city has instructed the shop to keep the meat.

 川崎市も市内の卸売業者への38・8キロの搬入を確認した。都内にも販売されており、市は買い取った業者名を都に報告した。

Kawasaki City has confirmed 38.8 kilograms of the meat to a wholesaler in the city. The wholesaler sold the meat to shops in Tokyo, and the city informed the Tokyo Metropolitan government of the name of the wholesaler.

3,240 becquerels/kg cesium won't affect the health, declares the public health officials. I sure hope citizens of Sagamihara City will hold them accountable.

Only Fujisawa City has the press release of the radiation survey of the meat easily accessible from the homepage. The press release does not identify the shop:

  • Amount that the meat shop in Fujisawa bought: 304.5 kilograms
  • Amount the meat shop sold to retail customers: 73 kilograms
  • Amount sold to shops outside the city: 123.9 kilograms (of which, 64.3 kg have been already sold to retail customers)
  • Amount remaining at the shop: 107.6 kilograms

Fujisawa City's press release and Asahi Shinbun article give you headache, because the numbers don't match at all. If you believe Fujisawa City, 73 kilograms were sold to customers in Fujisawa, and 64.3 kilograms were sold to customers outside Fujisawa.

If you believe Asahi Shinbun, the meat shop in Minami-ku, Yokohama sold 53 kilograms and 3 outlets in Sagamihara sold 77 kilograms to retail customers in their respective cities.

None of the shops who sold the contaminated beef is named. The reason? Because "Even if you eat this meat, I don't think there is no immediate danger to one's life" (official in Yokohama City, as reported by Tokyo Shinbun), so there's no need to name the shop.

Already, many Japanese have finally stopped believing official words. If they see this kind of absolutely idiotic response, they will either stop buying any domestic beef entirely (or pork or chicken, for that matter, as many have evacuated from Fukushima), or demand that the meat shops, supermarkets that they buy from clearly tell them where the meat came from.

6 comments:

mike in tokyo rogers said...

Good time to become a vegetarian (we are raw food eaters). At least with vegetables at the store, I can see where they came from.

Anonymous said...

It could be the same problem with vegetables ... don't forget the tea issue.
My recommendation will be to set up a clear traceability open to consummers so that rumors and panic doesn't spread to all products from Japan.
Governments must ban some regions that are clearly contaminated and set up tests on food products in near by regions and sea

Anonymous said...

All for one and one for all!!!




Always hated that crap anyways.

Anonymous said...

I would ask the people of those areas to be aware of any kind of change in your imidiate suroundings.
I mean everything from Insects to Plants(flower and so on). I have read that some have expirienced that insects are dying and disapeared from their gardens or backyard.
Thats the first sign of heavy contamination, because the radiation is killing or maiming life, life that has a short life spann.
Like insects.

That is not a good sign and sould require imidiate evac or messurements to establishe a safe sone.
If not, then I will recomend you all to relocate your selfs.
Read about Tjernobyl and note that even today areas heavy contaminated, still the spiders and other insects are gone. Insects and plants have been interlocked for eternety, any chang in that "dance" afects us all.
You may see this warning as a joke, its not. Its deadly serious maters and sould be handled that way.

"Not only will we have to repent for the sins of bad people; but we also will have to repent for the appalling silence of good people."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

Anonymous said...

"No immediate health hazard" is accurate. Of course, the same could be said about eating beef infected with BSE, Mad Cow disease. Didn't stop the Japanese government from prohibiting imports of beef from countries where Mad Cow cattle were
detected. Now its a lot easier to measure radiation in cattle than it is to detect BSE in cattle which is why this disease spread to Japan despite the precautions. Surely the Japanese government wants to protect its citizens from the danger of contaminated domestic beef with the same vigilance it imposed on imported beef. I mean, a customer at a restaurant cannot know where his meat came from.

Anonymous said...

So when is the Japanese public going to rise up and demand ENOUGH! or is everyone going to gaman for 25 years until they all get cancer? I just don't understand what is happening over there...

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