Phred Dvorak, and Juro Osawa, of the Wall Street Journal, report, Japan Halts Sale of Fukushima Beef.
TOKYO—The Japanese government Tuesday halted sales of all beef cattle from Fukushima prefecture, the scene of one of the world's worst nuclear accidents, in a bid to cap an escalating crisis in which meat contaminated with radioactive cesium has been shipped to stores and restaurants throughout the country.
Separately, the government unveiled a 30-year plan to monitor the health of the two million residents of the prefecture, a step that acknowledges the effects of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be long-lasting and far-reaching. The program will provide cancer diagnostics to all elementary and middle school children, supply dosimeters to all pregnant women and children, and decontaminate places where children gather, such as schools, parks and school roads.
Fukushima prefecture accounted for only around 2.6% of Japan's beef-cattle production by revenue, at $173 million, in 2009, the latest year for which figures are available. But the government's failure to detect and stop the flow of radiation-contaminated meat into the food supply until four months after Fukushima Daiichi spewed radioactive elements has a larger psychological resonance in Japan.
While I'd like to be more positive about this announcement, it may more appropriately be relegated to the "too little, too late" category?" Is this not the third time the Japanese has announced this 30 year lar-scale radiation monitoring program, in the last month? Are they only going to measure the radiation once it is in people? Or, will the government make the easy and straightforward efforts required to prevent unnecessary radiation from getting into Japanese people?
While a large scale, 30 year, radiation monitoring programs may sound great, this is the third time time it appears to be announced to take attention away from the disgraceful lack of any rigorous widespread government radiation monitoring of the food supply. And, these grand long-term announcements are becoming increasingly difficult to take it seriously, when we continue to have nearly seven days in a row, of evidence in this growing beef contamination story, indicating that the voluntary guidelines and honor system compliance for the safety and integrity of the food supply, is not working, before the government steps in.
And, this is just for beef. How are the Japanese people supposed to have any trust in TEPCO, and the Japanese government when we see such ad hoc, and haphazard testing of rice straw and beef, which was proven a week ago to be flawed?
What would be are best assumptions about the contaminated vegetable banned several months ago, given what we've seen this last week?
What is the approved of government system for disposing of these? Or was this also left to the honor system, and voluntary compliance?
Why should the Japanese people not assume some of this is leaking into chickens, pigs, others farm animals, or processed foods?
We should not be surprised if we hear growing calls for Prime Minster Naoto Kan's resignation.
And, perhaps also criminal prosecutions, both by Japanese authorities, as well as the International Courts, in Geneva, and the Hague. The levels of irresponsibility demonstrated here go behind mere incompetence, placing only the local Japanese population at risk. We now learn that Japan's Fastest Nuclear Breeder reactor, has over 4,000 pounds of plutonium. Enough for large numbers of nuclear warheads.
Yesterday, one of Japans legislators announced he believes Japan should develop an extensive range of ICBM nuclear missiles, that could reach the US, as well as China, and the former soviet states. This is the same same Japanese leaders who still denies that Japan was involved in the Rape of Nanking to the prior World Wars.
This by a government is is shocked, to discover radiative beef in the Fukushima Prefecture 4 months after the nuclear accidents, and who seem not to even be measuring radiation in chicken, or other livestock.
Dissatisfaction over the government's handling of the nuclear accident and its aftermath was already deepening. Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government has been criticized for fumbling its initial response to the nuclear disaster and for being slow to warn Fukushima residents of radiation dangers. Food safety is quickly becoming another flash point.
"I feel a personal sense of responsibility for this," Mr. Kan said Tuesday during questioning on the issue in a parliamentary committee. "I am extremely sorry."
It's time for a little more than apologies now, Prime Minister.
The beef scare started a week ago when Tokyo officials reported finding cattle in a shipment from Fukushima contaminated with several times the legally allowed amount of radioactive cesium. Fukushima prefectural officials traced the contamination to straw eaten by cattle raised in the region of the nuclear reactor—setting off a search for similar cases.
Investigations turned up more than 500 instances of cattle fed with highly contaminated straw being slaughtered and sold during the past four months. Some of those cattle were raised more than 60 miles from the stricken nuclear plant.
The findings have spurred cries for more thorough testing of beef to restore consumer confidence. Japanese government officials said they won't allow the sale of beef from Fukushima until meat from at least one head of cattle from each farm has been tested for radioactive contamination. Fukushima prefecture will be asked to test all cattle raised in the most highly contaminated areas of the prefecture—largely within a 18-mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Government officials said the levels of cesium found so far in the contaminated beef wouldn't be harmful to health unless eaten in large quantities for an extended period.
Our hearts go out to the poor people of Japan, who are not only having to struggle with the combined earthquoke, tsunami, and nuclear plant disasters, but also now the stress of having their health, and that of their children, in the hands of industry and Japanese government officials who seem to be struggling with basic issues of competency, trust, and integrity.
5:29 AM PT: Just in the last 10 hours the number of known contaminated cows has doubled and now numbers
Aaron Sheldrick, Peter Langan. pf the San Francisco Chronocal report, Japan's 'Major Problem' With Radioactive Cattle Gets Even Bigger
Bloomberg July 21, 2011 04:00 AM
July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's government said the number of cattle fed with hay contaminated by radiation has doubled, two days after shipments of beef from cows raised near the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant were banned.
As of yesterday there were 1,256 potentially contaminated cows from 637 two days earlier, said Kazutoshi Nobuto, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. "This is a major, major problem," Goshi Hosono, Japan's food safety minister, said yesterday at a press conference in the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
Hay from rice stalks made in Fukushima prefecture was found to contain radiation of as much as 690,000 becquerels compared with the 300-becquerel safety limit, according to the local government office. The cattle suspected of being fed the contaminated hay have been shipped to 45 of Japan's 47 prefectures, Kyodo News reported yesterday.
A becquerel represents one radioactive decay per second, which involves the release of atomic energy that can damage human cells and DNA, causing leukemia and other forms of cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.
About 437 kilograms (963 pounds) of beef from a farm in Minami-Soma city, 30 kilometers from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station, was eaten in eight prefectures, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government...
Japan's agriculture ministry has also been conducting tests of fish caught in the waters off the eastern seaboard of the country and found some contaminated with radiation.
Products including spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea, milk, plums and fish have been found to be contaminated with cesium and iodine as far as 360 kilometers (225 miles) from Dai- Ichi. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima station, said on June 14 it found cesium in milk tested near another nuclear reactor site about 210 kilometers from the damaged plant.
While the risk to the health of individuals who have eaten the beef is minor, the damage to reputation could end up "destroying whole industries," Burns said, who has 40 years experience in radiation safety.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...
Radioactive Cesiium 137 has a half-life of 30 years, and is taken up in the body, and ecosystems as if it were potassium. Many other radioactive isotopes are involved, but not measured as the bellweather isotopes. Strontium 90 has half-life of 29 years, and is incorporated into bone as if it were calcium, due to its location on the periodic table. This problems will be with us for a very long time. The rule of thumb for radioactive waste contanment is to isolate radiactive waste for a minimum of 10 to 13 times the shortest active isotope. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years.
The Japanese government has promised to provide an updated map of radioactive hotspots outside of the reactor side withing the next few days.