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Environment
Tokyo Tap Water Has ``Slight`` Traces of Radioactive Iodine
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Tokyo- (PanOrient News) Slight amounts of radioactive iodine have been detected in tap water in Tokyo, its vicinity and most prefectures neighboring Fukushima apparently due to the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Ministry of Science said Saturday.
Data from the Ministry of Science and Technology showed that while the substance was found in Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Chiba and Saitama prefectures as well as Tokyo, traces of cesium have also been found in tap water in two of them -- Tochigi and Gunma. But their levels do not affect human health even if they are consumed, officials stressed.
Japan's safety standards limit the amount of iodine-131 that can be contained in drinking water to 300 becquerels per kilogram and that of cesium to 200 becquerels. The ministry also announced the results of radiation monitoring conducted nationwide. In Maebashi, Gunma, 2.5 becquerels of iodine and 0.38 becquerel of cesium were detected Friday per kilogram of water, the prefectural government said, adding it is the first time the substances were found since it began testing tap water for radioactive materials in 1990.
The ministry's data cover 43 prefectures, or all prefectures excluding Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaraki and Nara. Fukushima conducts independent tests as it is the home of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant at the center of Japan's nuclear crisis. Meanwhile, test results at Miyagi, Ibaraki and Nara were unavailable for reasons including water stoppages.
Meanwhile, the Ibaraki Prefecture government said Saturday it is asking farmers in the eastern Japan prefecture to voluntarily refrain from shipping their spinach that have been grown in open fields.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said earlier that radiation levels exceeding the limits set under food safety standards have been detected from spinach samples collected from the prefecture.
Ibaraki, sits next to Fukushima Prefecture, the home of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s nuclear power plant at the center of the nation's nuclear crisis.
PanOrient News
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