Saturday, November 19, 2011

Radiation Leak in Japan and Global Food Crisis

Countries around the globe are imposing bans on Japanese food imports when radioactive imagesteam leaked from a disaster-struck nuclear plant. As of March 25, 2011, the official death toll for the March 11 monstrous earthquake had exceeded 10,000.  Water supplies are close to reaching a crisis with hundreds of thousands of people were housed in Tokyo’s evacuation shelters. Damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant attributed to plate movements triggering the quake and tsunami fuelled global anxiety. Increasing number of countries are joining the list of banning food imports from Japan. United States (US), Hong Kong (HK), France have already restricted the imports of Japanese food products. Russia and Canada halted food imports from four perfectures – Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki and Tochigi, which are in the vicinity of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant.

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On March 24, 2011, Singapore was reported to have detected low radiation levels in four vegetable samples that were imported from Japan. It was discovered that parsley, rapeseed, mustard and perilla were found to be tainted with radiation levels, but the levels were not life-threatening. Contaminated vegetables discovered in Singapore originated from Tochigi, Ibaraki, Chiba and Ehime. Australia and Singapore have banned agricultural produce from Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki and Tochigi. With  Singapore’s discovery of contaminated samples from Chiba, HK included Chiba in its suspension list. Singapore also suspended imports of chocolates, milk products and other foodstuffs from the four prefectures, Chiba and Ehime.

Food safety concerns are now an additional dimension of the emergency. Amid the fears of nuclear contamination, the Japanese government have informed its people not to consume 11 types of green leafy vegetables that are grown in Fukushima. The Ibaraki prefectures also sees the halting of the shipments of milk and parsley. Radiation fears are likely to affect domestic demand as most of the agricultural produce are consumed domestically. Food exports in Japan is also expected to see a slump.

Problems were compounded with the detection of radioactive iodine image in the drinking water being more than twice the level that was safe for infants. Release of the news by the Tokyo government led to the frenzy among people to sweep bottled water in shops and vending machines. The Tokyo government has also started distributing three 550 ml of bottles to each infant. Japan’s government has stopped shipments of untreated milk and other vegetables from Fukushima and 3 adjoining prefectures. Radiation monitoring has also been levelled up in 6 other prefectures, covering an area bordering Tokyo.   Results of the measurements of radioactivity in foods are also present and announced publicly to reassure the public that foods that they consume do not carry radiation contamination at the unsafe level. 

It was detected on March 25, 2011 that there were more contaminated vegetables as radiation above the legal limit had been detected in Japanese mustard spinach and komatsuna which are cultivated in Tokyo. This discovery followed after tap waters in several territories including Tokyo was discovered to contain radiation levels that was unsafe for infants to consume. Worldwide concerns on Japanese food imports were heightened with the detection of the high radiation levels in agricultural produce of Tokyo. With higher radioactivity being detected in the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of Fukushima’s nuclear plant, fears concerning the safety of fish and seaweed were stoked as they form the main staples of the Japanese.

 

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