JAPAN has detected abnormal levels of radioactivity in milk and spinach in areas near a stricken nuclear plant, but the foods pose no immediate threat to humans, Government spokesman Yukio Edano says.
The contaminated milk was found in Fukushima prefecture, where the quake-damaged atomic power station is located, while the tainted spinach was discovered in neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture.
“Radiation exceeding the limit under Japanese law was detected,” he said.
The spokesman said the Government had ordered authorities in both prefectures to investigate where the products came from, how they were distributed and depending on their findings suspend sales.
Mr Edano urged consumers to remain calm, noting that even if a consumer were to drink the contaminated milk for a year, the radiation level would be the equivalent of one CT scan.
PUBLIC health fears have been raised after traces of radioactive iodine were found in Tokyo’s tap water and Japanese authorities have stopped food sales in the areas around the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Government sources said radioactive iodine had reached the water supply of the country’s capital – home to 36 million people in the greater metropolitan area – after the emergency at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Abnormal levels of radioactive iodine were also found in the water supply in the central prefectures of Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama, Chiba and Niigata, an official at Japan’s science ministry said. But the levels were far below Japan’s legal limit, added the official, who did not want to be named.
Meanwhile, Japanese authorities halted all food sales in the areas around the Fukushima plant, according to UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency after high levels of radioactivity were found in milk and spinach in the region.
“Radiation exceeding the limit under Japanese law was detected,” government spokesman Yukio Edano said Saturday.
But he urged consumers to remain calm, claiming that drinking the contaminated milk for a year would only add up to the same radiation level as one CT scan.
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