Japan: Radioactive cesium detected in boar meat in Miyagi Pref.

Mainichi Daily News ^ | 08/20/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Radioactive cesium detected in boar meat in Miyagi Pref.

SENDAI (Kyodo) -- Radioactive cesium at a level over four times the government-set safety limit has been detected in the meat of a wild boar captured in Kakuda city, Miyagi Prefecture, the prefectural government said Friday.

It is the first time that radioactive contamination exceeding the safety limit was found in a wild animal or bird in the northeastern Japanese prefecture, local officials said, adding they will ask people in the prefecture not to eat meat of wild animals and birds for the time being.

The meat of the boar, which local hunters caught in the mountains in Kakuda on Aug. 7 in response to a request by the city government to exterminate it, measured 2,200 becquerels of cesium per kilogram. The central government's provisional safety limit is 500 becquerels per kg.

/snip

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Pollster1]

Japan: Radioactive cesium detected in boar meat in Miyagi Pref.

These headlines irritate me. The amount detected is so small that it is totally and completely irrelevant. That's like a headline "Obama's Brain Detected"; the detection is only meaningful if the amount detected matters.

[JadeEmperor]

>> The amount detected is so small that it is totally and
>> completely irrelevant.

Why have safety limits then, at all?

[toomanylaws]

So does that mean I have to throw out my entire freezer full of boar meat. Darn!

[TigerLikesRooster]

You mean you have boar meat from N.E. Japan? :-)

[bgill]

The government can’t stop the wind from blowing.

[mountainlion]

I wonder how much of Japan’s radiation troubles have been there some time and are the effect form neighbors testing?

[ransomnote]

Odd. They just lifted the ban on shipping beef from Fukushima even though they’ve been having problems with radioactive beef (e.g., they know they fed radioactive beef to the students at several schools and shipped radioactive beef to many regions of Japan) from that region but they want to limit boar?
Here’s the link for the lifting on the ban on beef from Fukushima:

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/08/japanese-government-will-lift-shipping.html

[ransomnote]

I’ve read in a few different places by now that nuclear bombs and testing do not yield anywhere near the same amount as Fukushima. Here’s an excerpt:

“”So, using our knowledge base at the Radioisotope Center, we calculated. Based on the thermal output, it is 29.6 times the amount released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In uranium equivalent, it is 20 Hiroshima bombs.

“What is more frightening is that whereas the radiation from a nuclear bomb will decrease to one-thousandth in one year, the radiation from a nuclear power plant will only decrease to one-tenth.

“In other words, we should recognize from the start that just like Chernobyl, Fukushima I Nuke Plant has released radioactive materials equivalent in the amount to tens of nuclear bombs, and the resulting contamination is far worse than the contamination by a nuclear bomb.””

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/professor-tatsuhiko-kodama-of-tokyo.html
The article identifies the person quoted: “Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama is the head of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo. On July 27, he appeared as a witness to give testimony to the Committee on Welfare and Labor in Japan’s Lower House in the Diet.”

[TigerLikesRooster]

Officials don’t care. They want to paper over it and declare that all is well. Saves them money and troubles.

[mountainlion]

China had an event where they had a total loss of either a weapons plant or some manufacturing facility. One description was that “debris squirted form the entrance like tooth paste form a tube for about 5 minutes”. Has there been any later information on this?

[ransomnote]

Pollster1 SAID: The amount detected is so small that it is totally and completely irrelevant. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ JadeEmperor SAID: Why have safety limits then, at all? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ransomnote SAID: Because the amount detected is not so small and is not totally and completely irrelevant. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (The chart and a good article on radiation in food was found at http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/shizuoka-governor-kawakatsu-entertains.html) Also from that site: "An anonymous reader linked the FDA document on the US standards on radionuclides. It looks to be the standards in the time of nuclear emergency (I could be wrong), and for food items, for adults, the intervention level for radioactive cesium is 1,200 becquerels/kg, and the level of concern is 370 becquerels/kg. The document is here: http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FoodContaminantsAdulteration/ChemicalContaminants/Radionuclides/ucm078341.htm#level98."

[JadeEmperor]

Awesome post! Great work to provide a data-driven response.

I understand that a number of freepers, because of a very justifiable opposition to modern radical environmentalism, have adopted a knee jerk “mirror imaging” response to the idea of having/following safety standards anywhere.

Its quite disturbing, actually.

[ransomnote]

Just over at Ex-SKF and someone noted in the comments that it is illegal in parts of Europe to eat wild boar because of Chernobyl fallout. The wild boars eat truffles and other mushrooms and the fungi are known to concentrate radiation at higher levels than surrounding vegetation.

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/08/wild-boar-in-miyagi-prefecture-was.html#comments

[TigerLikesRooster]

From an Spiegel article in 7/30, 2010 on the continuing effect of Chernobyl disaster: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,709345,00.html

Many of the boar that are killed land on the plates of diners across Germany, but it is forbidden to sell meat containing high levels of radioactive caesium-137 — any animals showing contamination levels higher than 600 becquerel per kilogram must be disposed of. But in some areas of Germany, particularly in the south, wild boar routinely show much higher levels of contamination. According to the Environment Ministry, the average contamination for boar shot in Bayerischer Wald, a forested region on the Bavarian border with the Czech Republic, was 7,000 becquerel per kilogram. Other regions in southern Germany aren't much better.

Germany's Atomic Energy Law, which regulates the use of nuclear energy in the country, mandates that the government in Berlin pay compensation to hunters who harvest contaminated animals.

[ex-Texan]

Why Fukushima Is Worse Than Chernobyl !

Exceprt:

* * * Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster known for his alarmist views, generated controversy during a Japan visit last month when he said the disaster would result in more than 1 million deaths. "Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan," he said. "Chernobyl went up in one go. So Fukushima is worse." * * *

Slowly, steadily, and often well behind the curve, the government has worsened its prognosis of the disaster. Last Friday, scientists affiliated with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant had released 15,000 terabecquerels of cancer-causing Cesium, equivalent to about 168 times the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the event that ushered in the nuclear age. (Professor Busby says the release is at least 72,000 times worse than Hiroshima * * *

[the invisib1e hand]

why quarrel about the becquerels of boars?

Why be terrorized by busby's terabecquerels?

[ex-Texan]

This Must See report features a RT video:

Fukushima Officially Declared Nuclear Nightmare !

This news is getting very freaky deaky