Is Japan's Food Supply in Danger?

Fukushima is an important agricultural region for Japan, so the potential for food hazards in the prefecture is obviously a concern, although radioactive particles of cesium, iodine and strontium etc. can also be deposited by weather systems into other agricultural areas, as has already been observed.

With regard to the current food safety protocols, Japan has set tentative limits, which are up for revision according to this article. I suppose there is a possibility that limits will be revised upwards because of an unavoidable rise in radioactivity levels in food supplies throughout the country. This is unfortunate, but you cannot make a rule that prohibits people from eating the only available food. The alternative is to accept a higher level of risk.

Meanwhile in other countries, standards are likely to remain similar or the same as FAO's IRALF values. The threat of migrating radioactive particles has already prompted neighbor governments to begin monitoring for radioactivity in their food chain. The point is clearly made by Physicians for Social Responsibility, when it comes to radioactivity, no amount is "safe". All levels of exposure carry some risk, and an increase in exposure levels will increase the number of individuals are expected to suffer the statistical health risk.

In Japan, it seems likely that people will be living with a higher statistical risk for as much as the next 30 or 60 years, based on the half-life of both Cesium 137 and Strontium 90 of around 30 years. The risk from Iodine 131 is short term (8 days half life) and can be mitigated by giving a stable Iodine supplement to persons exposed or at risk, to prevent uptake of the isotope into the thyroid.

Outside Japan, the risk of food contamination is being mitigated by monitoring for specific sites that become contaminated with Cesium 137, and preventing distribution and consumption of contaminated food. The risk of radioactivity contaminating food supplies outside Japan will continue as long as particles are mobile in the environment. If radioactive particles continue to be released, it will be necessary to continue monitoring, to manage and minimize the risks.

I understand that one reason the nuclear plants were sited on Japan's east coast was that prevailing winds would tend to disperse any small radioactive releases over the Pacific Ocean, where they would be attenuated to the inverse first-power of distance, on average.

I haven't done the arithmetic on it, but I suspect that the amount of Fukushima radiation absorbed by a U.S. west-coaster would be considerably less than from a two-hour airplane trip at cruising altitude. Of course, it is possible for Chicken Little to worry over any damned thing, no matter how far out of proportion.

Granted, the wind doesn't always blow west-to-east; the other direction could scatter a small of fallout over inland crop areas. To be sure, this should be monitored, but again I would guess the effect to be quite smaller than background radiation. No one seems to know the answer to this yet, but in the absence of reasonably confirmed data, I would worry much more about other life risks.

You're certainly right that risks of this nature are not put into perspective, and it is foolish for Chicken Little to be worrying about personal risk while continents away. Our perception of risk is very much skewed by media that feed on fear, and also by our habits, prejudices and wishes.

For example, there's irony in the fact that processed meats, like nuclear radiation, are in the "no amount is safe" category. All exposures lead to an increased health risk, as far as the science can tell.

Of course the difference is, I enjoy a little ham, whereas Cesium 137 is tasteless.

Look at it this way... Elevated levels of radiation has been detected in California not longs after... They say not level is safe... Then it will have an effect globally and I pitty the ones that lives close to the reactor... To top it off... It still is spealling it radiation into the atmosphere... Not good...

On that note other plants have leaks also that they do not post to let the public know about, so what are we doing building these radiation cancer machine...?