{"id":72094,"date":"2013-11-25T12:22:31","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T17:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=72094"},"modified":"2013-11-25T12:22:31","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T17:22:31","slug":"fukushima-food-safety-questions-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/fukushima-food-safety-questions-persist\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukushima Food Safety Questions Persist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Questions about the safety of food from Japan and the Pacific still loom, despite reassurances from scientists and government officials. While the U.S. is one of 44 countries and regions with bans placed on certain food imports from Japan, the acceptable limit of radiation in food is a controversial subject.<\/p>\n

Concerns include radiation in exported fish and rice, as well as migratory fish exposed to radiation that might then swim thousands of miles before being caught off of California and served in Boston.<\/p>\n

\"A
A worker checks for possible radioactive contamination using a Geiger counter at Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market in Seoul, South Korea. Photo by Ahn Young-Joon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently the U.S. radiation limit is 12 times higher (less stringent) than Japan’s; but officials claim that any food exceeding Japan\u2019s much lower limit will not be exported or even sold domestically.<\/p>\n

Only a small percentage of Japanese rice tested has exceeded this limit. The Japanese government claims that homegrown rice is safe to eat. But distrust of government and fear have created a demand for rice imports from China and other countries among many Japanese people.<\/p>\n

Japan is the only country actively testing fish and reporting the results to the public; 170 species are tested and 42 species are considered off-limits due to radiation fears.<\/p>\n

For the U.S., the FDA announced just one month after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck that it would not be testing fish off the West Coast. Many scientists claim that dilution from the vastness of the Pacific mitigates any cause for concern.<\/p>\n

Yet a study conducted by Stanford University, published in February 2012, revealed that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna caught off the coast of San Diego contained traces of cesium, a radionuclide that was directly linked to the Fukushima nuclear accident.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The migratory tuna travel between Japan and the West Coast of the U.S., and tested 10 times higher than previous years. Following this study, researchers at Oregon State University found detectable levels of cesium in Albacore tuna caught off the Pacific Northwest coast — these too were linked to Fukushima.<\/p>\n

However, the researchers from both studies concluded that the amount detected was too low to pose any significant health risk. According to scientists, the radioactive fish are safe to eat, despite the cesium.<\/p>\n

In fact, according to many scientists, the amount of radiation found in the contaminated fish is no more than that contained in a banana (bananas naturally contain radioactive potassium-40 and have been used to illustrate the concept of equivalent doses, but the illustration is problematic).<\/p>\n

Other scientists, including Dr. Helen Caldicott and Harvey Wesserman, say that any amount of ingested radionuclides is dangerous because each dose adds to what is already in the body, known as bioaccumulation. That increases the risk of genetic mutations, cancer and other issues associated with radiation. According to Caldicott, once ingested, the particles continuously emit radiation for years because of their long half-lives and can lodge themselves in muscle tissue or even bones, irradiating and damaging cells.<\/p>\n

Aside from the limited tests and studies conducted so far, the full extent of food contamination in Japan and the Pacific is relatively unknown. As Caldicott claims, the health consequences can take years, even decades, to fully manifest.<\/p>\n

With 300 tons of contaminated water flowing into the Pacific each day, leading to the bioaccumulation of radionuclides into the ecosystem, the risks for humans at the top of the food chain have indefinitely increased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questions about the safety of food from Japan and the Pacific still loom, despite reassurances from scientists and government officials. While the U.S. is one of 44 countries and regions with bans placed on certain food imports from Japan, the acceptable limit of radiation in food is a controversial subject. Concerns include radiation in exported … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}