Scientists: Radiation in Japan food poses low risk

By Rita Rubin and Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

Health risks to Japanese from eating foods contaminated with elevated levels of radiation are fairly low, scientists say.

The Japanese government has found radiation levels "significantly above" acceptable levels in milk, spinach and kakina, another leafy vegetable, produced near the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday. Yet the government says the levels are still low enough that they pose no immediate threat to human health.

Still, because the radiation levels are above legal limits, the government has banned distribution of milk from Fukushima Prefecture and spinach and kakina from Fukushima and three other prefectures.

"Even if you eat contaminated vegetables several times, it will not harm your health at all," Chief Cabinet spokesman Yukio Edano said in the Japanese government's latest appeal to ease public concerns.

Fred Mettler, a University of New Mexico radiologist who led a United Nations-sponsored team investigating the health effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, said he didn't expect to see any detectable increase in cancer risk from consumption of radiation-contaminated foods in Japan, let alone in the USA.

Radioactive iodine gets into milk 12 hours after cows eat contaminated grass, Mettler said. More than two decades after the Chernobyl reactor explosion in Ukraine, Mettler said, the only detectable increases in cancer cases attributed to it are thyroid cancers. Those cancers have occurred in people who were children or teens at the time of the accident and drank milk from cows that ate grass in the thousands of square miles contaminated with radioactive iodine.

In Japan, it's not surprising that spinach is the main vegetable found contaminated, because it's an early spring crop whose large leaves can catch falling radiation, said Robert Buchanan, director of the Center for Food Safety and Security Systems at the University of Maryland.

Both Mettler and Buchanan noted that virtually all foods contain radioactivity collected from cosmic sources and bits of uranium in soil.

After a massive 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami devastated Japan, many are turning to different aid groups to offer assistance. Here are some organizations where you can get involved:

Americans need not worry about consuming food produced near the Fukushima plant, Mettler, Buchanan and the Food and Drug Administration say.

Only about 4% of all food imported to the USA comes from Japan, and dairy products make up only 0.1% of all FDA-regulated products imported from Japan, according to the agency.

"Because of the heavy damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami to the region, no products are currently being exported from the affected area," according to the FDA.

Meanwhile, engineers hit a new setback Monday in their attempts to control the overheated nuclear reactors and pools of spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station. Smoke poured from two areas of the spent-fuel-rod pools, for reasons still unknown, and forced workers to evacuate temporarily.

On their return, engineers continued pumping seawater to cool down three crippled nuclear reactors, and firetrucks refilled water in the spent-fuel-rod pools in the two buildings. Power had been partly reconnected to all six reactors at the plant, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Co.

"Conditions are improving across the board," said nuclear engineer David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "But it is still very challenging."

Damaged pumps and other equipment have slowed repairs, as has the need to insulate electrical repair work from the water spraying. Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency suggested full repairs could take weeks.

Also Monday, a teacher from Virginia was identified as an American victim of the tsunami.

The family of Taylor Anderson, 24, said in a statement that the U.S. Embassy in Japan called to say her body was found in the city of Ishinomaki. Jean Anderson said her daughter was last seen after the earthquake riding her bike away from an elementary school after making sure parents picked up their children.

Contributing: The Associated Press
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