"Becquerels" and Japan's changing "safety" standards for radiation in food and water

CC」のボタンで日本語の字幕あり

In this video I explain the unit called a "becquerel" which is used to measuring radioactive contamination in water, food, and other things. I also discuss the Japanese government's "safety" limits.

Having lived in Japan for several years and speaking to non-native English speakers so much, I really noticed in this video how slowly I've come to speak. I apologize and will try to return to "native" speed for future videos.

Japanese Science Ministry (MEXT) radioactive contamination in tap water information:
(Japanese)
http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/saigaijohou/syousai/1303956.htm
(English)
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/incident/1304083.htm

I have not had time to thoroughly investigate it, so I didn't report on it, however, going through the .pdf archives of radioactive iodine and cesium in tapster I was unable to find any reference of 210 becquerels/liter which was a high that the Tokyo tapster hit as reported by many local and foreign news sources when it happened. Here is one of many mainstream western media references to it (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42225380/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/radiation-fea­rs-spread-tokyo-drinking-water/)

Japanese Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry March 17, 2011 document detailing new safety limits of radioactive contamination in food and water:
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r9852000001558e-img/2r9852000001559v.pdf

WHO, Germany, and U.S. radioactive iodine and cesium permitted levels information source:
http://simplyinfo.org/group/?p=1897
(This site has some good information, and some information that I would prefer to verify with a second source. If I were making a presentation beyond the scope of this informative video, I would seek an additional source to verify these figures, however time has not permitted me to do so right now.)

Plutonium damage to ape lung image credit:
photo by Robert Del Tredici from his book
"At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb"
(Harper and Row, 1987)

It's difficult to find references to the pre 3/17 safety limits. Here is a document from March, 2002 from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare web site. It is a testing manual and not a publication about limits, but page 10 number 4 shows the limits of 20 bq/kg (water, milk) and 50 bq/kg solid foods: http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r9852000001558e-img/2r98520000015cfn.pdf

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Japan
• Fukushima
• nuclear
• plutonium
• cesium
• iodine
• water
• food
• safety
• government
• MEXT
• 福島
• 水道水
• 蛇口水
• ベカレル
• 放射性物
• 放射線
• 政府
• 文部科学省

[ChrisNolandTV]

What pages did u get the data for Germany And the who? Also what was the limit for veg meat etc before. You said it was 10 for water but what about veg which is a lovely 2000 now.... I'd appreciate finding the info I need to cite the reference.

[AluminumStudios]

@ChrisNolandTV I updated the description under the video, please check there for some references to data sources.

[AluminumStudios]

@ChrisNolandTV Yeah, I wish I had a more solid reference, but wanting to get my message out, being busy with work, and having a lot of stress from the situation I decided to go with the information I had at hand. Finding the original Japanese limits is tough since all searches turn up the new limits and Japanese web sites and documents are so dry and complex that wading through them is really tough, even for native speakers/readers of the language.

[Shanyx96]

In norway the limit for bq is 0

[AluminumStudios]

@Shanyx96 That is what it should be. Japan is threatening the health of it's population with their unacceptably high limits.

[AustralianCannonball]

Thankyou William. Yes it has been a "Nuclear Deception". Now you have me wondering about the air. I remember watching a 60 minutes Australia episode in the week after the disaster and the reporter was told the air was 20 times the safety limit in Tokyo and nothing to worry about. Now was that 20 times the normal safety limit or did they revise that too?. Very good points in your video.

[AluminumStudios]

@AustralianCannonball With safety limits changed so wantonly, they seem pretty meaningless. It really leaves everyone on their own to guess what is "safe". The air safety limits WERE increased from 1 to 20 mSv/year (this would be 2.2 uSv/hr). Parent's in Fukushima have been up in arms about this because 20 mSv/year is more than adult nuke workers in many countries are allowed to have! I think it's like 4x the evacuation criteria the soviets used for Chernobyl.

[KahnBB6]

Again, thank you for this, William. I'm only now seeing your videos but they are extremely informative. This also concerns me because I live in southern California and there is scant data on how much radiological exposure we have been getting through the air since April.

[ChrisNolandTV]

@AluminumStudios well for Water according to WHO ( I called) it is 10 For the EU and USA limits for foods is 370 for WHO it is 1000 to comply with Codex and the WTO ( basically a guideline for food for sale. refs WHO/FDA/CODEX/FAO

[ChrisNolandTV]

@AluminumStudios ill try calling to eh WHO and IAEA for these numbers since i cannot find them on their sites anywhere,... i cannot use a blog ref for a documentary,, but good work I did learn a lot!!

[intrptr]

Ty 4 that expose. If we need to know what the current levels of exposure for people are in any given vicinity, all we need to do is look up the ever increasing allowable limits chart. LOL

[t4705mb6]

I find it absolutely astounding that the people of the world even believe that the few "royal" families (Call them "elitists" or super rich - whatever.) have any cares about them - at all! They see increases of population as a threat because more people on the planet means more people who think & they certainly don't want their unspeakable crimes discovered, their status taken away. Nuclear power was KNOWN to be a KILLER from the start but VERY lucrative for the rich. Don't understand?