Contamination scare

source: manila bulletin
TOKYO (Reuters, AP) – Many shops in Tokyo ran out of bottled water on Thursday after radiation from a damaged nuclear plant made tap water unsafe for babies, while more countries imposed curbs on imports of Japanese food.



Engineers are trying to stabilize the Fukushima nuclear facility nearly two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami battered the complex and devastated northeast Japan.

Tokyo's 13 million people have been told not to give infants tap water because of contamination twice the safety level.

The government urged residents not to panic and hoard bottled water -- but many shops quickly sold out.

“If this is long term, I think we have a lot to worry about,” said Riku Kato, father of a one-year-old baby.

Radiation above safety levels has also been found in milk and vegetables from the area around Fukushima, 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, and in Saitama prefecture next to the capital, according to Kyodo news agency.

Singapore and Australia joined the United States and Hong Kong in restricting food and milk imports from the zone, while Canada became the latest among many nations to tighten screening as a result of the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.

Radiation particles have been found as far away as Iceland, although Japan insists levels are not dangerous to adults.

The contamination scare is adding to Japan's most testing moment since World War Two after the catastrophe of March 11.

Likewise, radiation levels above safety norms for infants were found in the water purification system in Kawaguchi, Saitama prefecture, adjacent to Tokyo, as workers try to contain damage to a quake-hit nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan, Kyodo news agency said on Thursday.

Kawaguchi found 120 becquerels of radioactive iodine -- slightly above the recommended limit, Kyodo said. The previous day, Tokyo said it detected 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine at a water purification plant and recommended that infants not be given tap water.

With these development, workers loaded trucks with boxes of bottled water to distribute across the city Thursday after residents cleared store shelves following warnings that Tokyo's tap water had elevated radiation coming from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear complex.

Anxiety over food and water supplies soared a day after city officials reported that radioactive iodine in the tap water was measured at levels considered unsafe for babies over the long term.

“The first thought was that I need to buy bottles of water. I also don't know whether I can let her take bath,” real estate agent Reiko Matsumoto said of her daughter, Reina, age 5. “I am very worried.”

The panic in Japan's largest city, home to around 13 million people, added to growing fears over the nation's food supply as nuclear workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant 140 miles (220 kilometers) to the north struggled to regain control of the facility.

The nuclear power plant has been leaking radiation since the tsunami engulfed its cooling systems, leading to explosions and fires in four of its six reactors. After setbacks and worrying black smoke forced an evacuation, workers were back to work Thursday, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano sought to allay fears over the tap water readings.

“We ask people to respond calmly” to the water situation, he said at a briefing Thursday. “The Tokyo metropolitan government is doing its best.”

Households with infants will get three, half-liter bottles of water each – a total of 240,000 bottles – city officials said, begging Tokyo residents to buy only what they need for fear that hoarding could hurt the thousands of people without any water in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The estimated $300 billion damage makes it the world's costliest natural disaster, dwarfing Japan's 1995 Kobe quake and Hurricane Katrina that swept through New Orleans in 2005.

Some 25,600 people are dead or missing from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami waves that swept away whole towns on the Pacific coast.

2 exposed to radiation

On Thursday, two workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant suffered injuries when their feet came in contact with radioactive elements while laying electrical cables in one unit, said Fumio Matsuda, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industry Safety.

The two were being treated at a hospital. They were exposed to radiation levels between 170 to 180 millisieverts, less than the maximum amount of 250 millisieverts that the government allows for workers at the plant, Matsuda said.

More than two dozen people have been injured trying to bring the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control.

Philippines

In the Philippines, the Bureau of Customs is tightening its watch on the entry of any foodstuff from Japan to prevent the entry of products contaminated by radiation.

BoC Airport Deputy Collector Thess Roque ordered all the customs examiners to be on the lookout for foodstuff being brought to the country by passengers from all Japanese airports, including Narita, Osaka and Kansai.

Roque said she instructed all Customs personnel to coordinate with Bureau of Plant Quarantine personnel at the airport whenever they come across food products that may be contaminated by radiation.

Roque said all passengers from Japan will have to undergo stringent customs inspection and look for fresh produce, including vegetables, dairy and meat products.

“All questionable food products will be turned over to the plant quarantine officials who will decide if the items will be confiscated,” Roque said.

“We do not have a radiation testing equipment, so we'll just turn over the seized food items to quarantine officials,” Roque added.

source: manila bulletin