Radiation discovery fans food fears in Japan

I hope JT will run the story about Dr Robert Peter Gale.

A very good man, he helped many after chernobyl and is a leader in lukemia and bone marrow surgery, if anyone will know what they are talking about as far as radiation goes this guy sure as hell will, Listen to what he has to say.

HaruMiki,

Well if thats what it says cool, l was only asking as l found 4 articles that had comments from him and there was nothing at all like that said in them. In fact he was expressing concern at the situation. Thanks for the update though

As you have not found the article, you may not be able to read Japanese. That is why I hope JT carries the news. It is on Yahoo news but originally from Jiji press, a leading wire service company. The article does state what I have written above. Actually, that was the heading for the article in Japanese.

HaruMiki,

"There is an American physician who hauled all the way to Tokyo today just to say the radioactivity released by the Fukushima plant does not amount to the carcinogenicity of a cigarette" can you please quote the source for this as the articles that l have read recently say this guy is here to assist with the relief efforts, not what you claim. Also nowhere in the 4 recent articles l read does this guy say what you claim. So please by all means show a source or stop making thins up as you go.

There is an American physician who hauled all the way to Tokyo today just to say the radioactivity released by the Fukushima plant does not amount to the carcinogenicity of a cigarette. I hope JT will run the story about Dr Robert Peter Gale. Also, in panic stricken China, a man has died from an OD of potassium iodine.

Also, did anyone notice that the ocean contamination has been found several kilometers south of Fukushima?

On proudnippon's links: it's precisely the rapid half-life of I-131 that causes the most problems upon ingestion. A half-life means a beta particle and a gamma ray are emitted.

The article is correct that after the last contamination from the power plant all of the I-131 should be back to negligible levels in a few months. But you don't want to be ingesting any of it.

Keep in mind that these measures do not includ plutonium particules and others unknown nasty stuff coming from the MOX fuel in reactor n° 3...

google "radioactive milk 58000 glasses" and read what an expert has to say on the matter

Most radiation doesn't penetrate more than a few millimeters - it's ingesting it (where it radiates you from the inside out) which is most deadly. Skin radiation is more serious when directly exposed to radiation blasts.

The reason iodine tablets are critical is because the thyroid is the first to go. I.e. protecting the rest of the body is meaningless if you ingest radioactive iodine.

There is nothing that actually detoxes the body but the body's own process itself. Medicines like iodine simply crowed the thyroid leaving no room for radioactive iodine to deposit but simply get excreted by the kidneys. The kidneys do not differentiate in the slightest between regular iodine and radioactive iodine, but with first dose of iodine already deposited the radioactive iodine will tend to get excreted.

I wouldn't trust any source that so loosely talks about the science of radiation treatment.

is that why they cleared out all the crunchy peanut butter at the supermarkets ? All i can find is the creamy kind.

Mexico just put a ban on food stuffs from the affected areas of Japan, not all food from Japan but food from Fukushima etc..

does anyone know how to convert becheral to microseiverts?

@Ranger: Spirulina is probably more available and popular in Japan than in Berkeley. Yahoo shopping alone has 10 pages, so I am sure you can find it near you.

Kids and pregnant women should not it that food.

I feel sorry for the farmers in Fukushima, maybe those parts that are not contamineted should be given to the neighboring prefectures. Or just rename the whole thing, like Fukuto, or Sanrishima, and write it all in Hiragana, looks more "kawaii". But all Sarcasm aside, this reminds of the Minamata mercury-posining. Many of those who died there where poor fishermen, abandoned by the state and unable to sell their fish, because other people suspected it to be the reason for the illnesses. Thus their only food was that rejected fish...

Where the heck am I going to get spirulina in Tokyo? Seriously...this is not Berkeley...

GW, I am a realist and never believed in that detoxification BS. I took them initially because I suffer from really bad menstrual pains and migraines. They have diminished by I would say 80%. And trust me I tried a lot of things. As for the radiation, I am not the scientist who did the research but I try to have an open mind.

foxie

while I have heard those supplements are good for you I seriously doubt they battle the affects of radiation & a lot the crap about supplements "detoxifing the body" is just utter BS, by all means eat healthy stuff but pls lay off the non-sense stuff please

@im3ngs, various researches have been done on it. You can google NaturalNews up for details.

@Foxie, how do they do that exactly? What's the science behind them?

For those of you who are worried, try Spirulina or Chlorella. I have been taking Spirulina for years and recommend it. Here is what I read on Natural News:

Protecting yourself in the event of a serious radiation event involves much more than simply loading up on potassium iodide and various other iodine supplements. While high levels of iodine do protect the thyroid and glandular systems from radiation poisoning, they do not necessarily protect the rest of your body from the devastating and deadly effects of nuclear radiation. However, two amazing superfoods -- Spirulina and Chlorella -- offer substantiated protection against harmful radiation. They also help to detoxify the body of harmful radiation after exposure, effectively protecting organs and other areas not protected by iodine.

If this food was already on sale, it must have been in the distribution chain long before the disaster, hence not a problem. More scaremongering.

paranoia!!

So, the contaminated but still completely safe food.. I hope it will be put on massive sale, so that I can buy it cheaply! No problems eating it, it's still 100% safe, I just am always looking for a way to save money!

It's a pitty what's been going on. But with all of the conflicting info and media blowouts. I would have to agree with Nagako Mizuno, 73.

If you are dumb enough to drink the tap water in Tokyo then one litre will net you the same radiation does as 188th of a chest xray. Isn't there a Japanese or Kanto saying that the water in Tokyo goes through 5 to 8 people before it reaches the sea again?! I remember hearing it just last year at a party in Midtown.

Next thing we'll be hearing about is mis-labeling of produce- spinach from Fukushima will be labeled as spinach from Chiba.

"TEPCO executives should be sued and jailed for all these"

What? And let God/Mother Nature off the hook?

Chiba prefecture is EAST of Tokyo.

At least it was... before the 3/11 tsunami rearranged eastern Honshu!

gonna be some relabelling of veggies for sure..... as usual

looks like I chopped my own post a bit

The KI is in the stuff many gargle with during cold/flu season, guai kusuri or whatever its called

correction please; Chiba prefecture is EAST of Tokyo.

I went to the drug store a few days & asked about KI pills or crystals & the pharmacist knew what & why I asked, but they can only be given out by persciption after visiting a doc, & since I am closer to 50 than 40 doesnt sound like they wud do much for us anyway, but these if available in quantity shud be readied to supply families with kids.

But I think announcing this cud set off a panic, most japanese dont seem to be aware of these.

If you want the KI you can get it over the counter in that stuff that many but a few drops in a glass & mix with water it contains a fair bit of KI the kind you wud need, but whatever you do dont swig the stuff like whiskey as its toxic at higher levels, perhaps start gargling 3-4times a day might be a good idea

There was an episode of Gilligan's Island where they got some radioactive vegetables. Gilligan ate radioactive spinach and became super strong, while Mary Ann ate radioactive carrots and got good eye sight.

Another thing to consider is that perhaps the amount in X amount of tap water is safe, but if you eat multiple contaminated foods and drink multiple contaminated drinks, is it still harmless?

Has the government begun to distribute iodine pills? Do they even know what that is?

In Chernobyl, tens of thousands of lives were saved because these pills were distributed en masse.

The half life of radioactive Iodine is 8 days , so it would take more than a month to drop to legal levels. By then the food will have either spoiled or people emigrated to other cities.

I guess Japanese are either scared of Chinese food imports for fear of it being poisoned, or frightened that Japanese food sources are now radioactive. Or afraid of American beef for mad cow disease.

Got to give it the Japanese. They are the most insular people on earth. Hopefully, non-radioactive food aid from other nations, namely, the United States, China, and South Korea, will help the 500,000 tsunami affected Japanese who are now starving.

There were no signs Sunday of the panic buying that stripped Tokyo supermarkets of food last week.

Really? No signs? Did the misinformed individual responsible for this statement actually go to a supermarket? On Saturday I saw one lady and her kid with a trolley each, two baskets on each trolley all filled with as much bottled water as they could get in them.

Once again the government is downplaying the situation and before the usual people jump down my throat for scaremongering this is why l say what l say.

From this article "The government said the level of radiation detected on spinach and milk was minuscule and should be no threat to health."

From another article on JT "Edano said that the detected radiation levels cannot be assumed to influence human health and there is no need to take steps to address the matter at present."

And from the same article "In 1 kilogram of spinach grown in open air in the city, 54,000 becquerels of iodine was detected, exceeding the 2,000 becquerel limit preliminarily set by the government under the food sanitation law"

Now 27 times the limited amount is not miniscule. That is a large amount, to say that it is miniscule is insulting and shows just how much the government is downplaying the whole situation. And what is being done about it, the government has asked for a voluntary halt shipment of contaminated products. And yes while ingesting a small amount of radioactive Iodine in itself is not dangerous it is not a one off thing the iodine actually accumulates in the body which is why it is more dangerous to kids and teens.

At the end of the day personally l would prefer the government to stop downplaying the situation so people can make better informed decisions.

i am not a panicker , so did not leave with the initial exodus of foreigners, yet if the radiation in food continues I will want to relocate my daughter to south Japan or back home so she can eat veges etc

Hopefully, when you add all that radioacive stuff together, it's still not enough radition to make anyone sick..... I Hope......

I'm on the outside looking in... and the wind never just travels one way, like when it rains the wind switches up. so this radiation is in the milk must mean it's on the livestock and whatever the livestock eats... radiation has fallen to the ground so it on the vegetables...It's also in the pacific ocean so it's on some of the fish maybe.... I don't know about your city water treatment system but if it is recycled water like here in the States........ Not saying this to alarm anyone ....

TEPCO executives should be sued and jailed for all these.