Small amounts of radiation from Japan noted over PH

MANILA, Philippines—Small amounts of radiation from Japan’s leaking nuclear power plant have spread across Asia, authorities said on Tuesday, deepening concerns for millions of people already wary of eating Japanese food.

The governments of the Philippines, China, South Korea and Vietnam reported that radiation had drifted over their territories, although they emphasized the levels were so small that there was no health risk.

CANDLE POWER Antinuclear demonstrators hold a candlelight vigil to protest the use of nuclear power outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles on Monday. Traces of radioactivity from damaged nuclear power facilities in Japan have been detected in rainwater in the northeast United States, but pose no health risks. AFP

“We would like to ask the public not to panic. These are very tiny amounts in the air,” Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) spokesperson Tina Cerbolis said, echoing officials in the other countries that detected the radiation.

To show how harmless the situation is, the PNRI said one would get more radiation from eating a banana than from inhaling the radioactive particles that have drifted into the country.

“If you will eat bananas in a day, the amount of radioactive dose will be 280 times the amount in radioactive iodine and cesium in a period of one day,” PNRI deputy director Corazon Bernido said at a briefing in Camp Aguinaldo.

“But it’s all right to eat bananas,” Bernido said.

Europe, North America

She said small amounts of radiation were also detected in the United States, Russia, Iceland, France, Sweden and Canada.

“I can firmly assure you that this amount [of radiation] will not have an iota of impact on the lives of ordinary Koreans,” Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety chief Yun Choul-ho told reporters in Seoul.

Nevertheless, the development was another reminder for people across the Asia-Pacific region about the rippling impact of the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station more than two weeks after a huge earthquake and tsunami crippled the facility.

People and governments living in countries near Japan have already taken a range of precautionary measures as they watch the crisis escalate.

Testing food from Japan

Authorities across the region have begun testing Japanese food imports for radiation, while some vegetables grown near Fukushima are banned altogether.

Travelers returning from Japan also started to be screened at some airports for radiation.

In China, two Japanese travelers were hospitalized last week after airport officials detected elevated radiation levels on them, although they were later discharged.

Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council reported on Tuesday that small amounts of radioactive particles had been detected on 43 passengers from Japan since the crisis began.

The shipping industry has also grown increasingly nervous about vessels potentially sailing into contaminated waters off the coast of Japan.

Chinese authorities said last week that radiation had been detected on a Japanese merchant vessel that berthed in the southeastern port city of Xiamen.

Screening fish

In another development on Tuesday underlining rising fears about potentially dangerous radiation spreading across the region, South Korean officials said they had begun screening fish caught in their own waters.

Fish, including mackerel and hair tail, were being tested for cesium, iodine and other radioactive materials, although none had been detected, a South Korean agricultural ministry said.

China’s health ministry has also ordered authorities in 14 areas, including Beijing and Shanghai, to test drinking water and food for radiation, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported.

Greenpeace International nuclear expert Rianne Teule said the spreading plume of radiation across Asia and further afield was not a cause for panic for people outside of Japan.

“The levels (of radiation) that are reaching countries far away are so low that they will not be a significant health risk,” Teule said.

Going down

Bernido said the highest detected radioactivity level was recorded on March 24. “But after that day it has been going down,” she said.

She said the PNRI’s average radiation readings was 100 millisieverts per hour. As of March 28, it monitored 93 to 115 nanosieverts per hour.

“It has remained steady but with fluctuations,” Bernido said.

A radioactive dose of 250 millisieverts has no obvious effect on humans, according to the PNRI. It said a person on the average receives background radiation from the environment and food at 3 millisieverts a year.

At the briefing, food authorities also allayed fears about the safety of food imported from Japan.

Food and Drug Administration Director (FDA) Suzette Lazo said the Philippines had not imported food from the vicinity of Japan’s damaged nuclear power plant after March 11.

There are 24 registered importers of processed Japanese foods ranging from noodles, rice, snack foods, coffee, tea, condiments, milk chocolates and seaweeds.

“We reviewed the origin of foods. There is no food that originated from the proximity of the Fukushima nuclear plant,” Lazo said.

“We have not banned any of (their) food products but last week we have imposed a random sampling of products coming in after March 21. Let me assure you that the food supply from Japan came in before March 11,” she added.

Port monitors

The FDA, which oversees processed food, has 16 radiation portal monitors that scan for radioactivity container vans coming in at the North Harbor and South Harbor of the Port of Manila.

Since the monitors cannot detect radioactivity when the cargo is less than 350 kilos, the FDA takes samples for testing in the PNRI laboratory. “So far the results were normal,” Lazo said.

The Bureau of Customs said a shipment of 6.7 tons of chocolate milk arrived on March 12 but the shipment was made March 4, a week before the earthquake.

No fresh meat has been imported from Japan, according to the National Meat Inspection Commission.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said it had not imposed a ban but was doing random testing on imported fish from Japan. The testing so far indicated that radioactive levels were “negligible,” the bureau said.

The PNRI has not recommended screening travelers from Japan.

Equipment in Tanay

In a bulletin issued on March 28, the PNRI said the radiation level in the country’s atmosphere was “normal.”

The equipment that monitors atmospheric radiation, located in Tanay town in Rizal province, is so sensitive it can observe tiny changes in radiation levels.

Even isotopes billowing from nuclear tests in North Korea were detected in the past, Philippine officials said.

The major Philippine coastline nearest to the stricken nuclear plant in Japan is about 2,500 kilometers to its southwest. With reports from Kristine L. Alave, Agence France-Presse and Reuters