Penduduk jepang yang terdampak bencana nuklir melakukan pengetesan bahan makan sendiri

[kullatiro]

Penduduk jepang sekarang melakukan pengetesan radioaktif sendiri terhadap bahan makanan di tempat pengecekan radioaktif mandiri/ swasta.

toko toko pengecekan radioaktif di bahan makan ini mulai menyebar di jepang.


February 10, 2012
With more and more people worried
about possible radioactive
contamination in the food they eat,
some enterprising businesses are
profiting from providing a little peace
of mind.
Since the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power
Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power
plant, the use of so-called public
measuring stations is spreading as
consumers conduct their own
radiation inspections on food
products, rather than relying on those
performed by local governments and
distributors.
"My friend who goes fishing is
worried, so I said I'd come and check
for him," said an elderly man, after
taking a reading of radioactive cesium
in some octopus at a testing shop in
Chiba.
The clerk nods and says, "Yeah, that's
something to worry about."
The store, located in downtown
Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, is called
Bekumiru. It opened last October as a
place where customers can measure
food products and other items for
radioactive substances. A simple
measuring instrument sits at each of
the seven booths inside.
Customers bring over what they want
to measure and place the items on
the instruments. The cost of
measuring each item ranges from 980
yen up to 3,980 yen for a more
precise reading.
A 55-year-old man who runs a rice
store in the prefecture brought in
some locally harvested rice, along with
apples and mandarin oranges, from
his home garden.
"I want to be responsible and check
whether I can sell them and give them
to other people," he said.
Radiation in the rice came up as
"undetected" while a little was found
in the fruits, though at an extremely
low level.
According to the president of
Bekumiru, Motohiro Takamatsu, 47,
many of the customers who use the
radiation detectors are seniors
wanting to know whether they can
give their grandchildren fruits and
vegetables from their home gardens.
The next largest group is mothers and
young couples with children. Farmers
are particularly feeling a sense of
urgency. They come to use the
detectors, worried that they will have
to shut down their farms if they get a
high reading. Mindful of their
concerns, the store has covered the
screens displaying the values so that
only the person using a machine can
see the readings.
In some cases, people worried about
the effects of radioactive substances
have gotten together to buy
measuring instruments, while some
private companies are taking readings
as part of their business.
So far, public measuring stations have
been set up in cities such as
Fukushima, Yokohama, Shizuoka and
Tokyo's Kokubunji, with preparations
to open elsewhere under way. Some
of the stations solicit expert advice
from researchers.
The National Public Measuring Station
Network was created with the idea of
loosely connecting these measuring
stations. Hidetake Ishimaru, 39, who
also works with the National Network
of Parents to Protect Children from
Radiation, administers the mailing list.
So far, around 30 organizations from
Hokkaido to Fukuoka have signed up,
including those that will soon begin
running their own public measuring
stations.
The list is used to exchange
information, such as questions on
how to handle measuring equipment
and concerns about running the
stations. Eventually, they hope to
share data on readings taken at all
measuring stations.
"A single measuring station can only
take readings on a limited number of
items," says Ishimaru. "With all the
different kinds of food out there, I'd
like to see measuring stations
everywhere."
In the beginning, Bekumiru had an
issue regarding how to guarantee
accurate readings. A problem arose
with radioactive potassium that occurs
naturally in some food products, not
related to the nuclear accident. The
machine readings would mistake this
for cesium from the nuclear power
plant.
Ryugo Hayano, professor of nuclear
physics at the University of Tokyo and
an advocate for inspecting school
lunches, visited Bekumiru and helped
fix the problem by adjusting the
settings so that they would negate the
effect of potassium and take accurate
measurements.
Hayano sees a need for citizen
awareness regarding radiation
readings. He points out that "local
governments do not perform
comprehensive inspections.”
“They focus more on beef and rice, so
there might be contaminated food
products going undetected,” he said.
“Meanwhile, most produce from
home gardens that growers do not
distribute is not inspected, so they
may contain many radioactive
substances. Independent
measurements are very important to
avoid these risks.
"(Public measuring stations) will teach
people how to take readings
themselves and how (to detect)
contaminated food, and this will also
getting them thinking about internal
radiation exposure."


 ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201202100066