Allowed Cesium level in Food Raised

Johnboy1951

I just came across this
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/eu-secretly-ups-cesium-safety-level-in-food-20-fold/

EU secretly ups cesium safety level in food 20-fold

The European Union has authorized radioactive load in foods in Japan has increased substantially. Until now, a maximum of 600 becquerels of radioactivity (cesium 134 and cesium 137) per kilogram allowed, but since last weekend for example oil or herbal suddenly 12,500 becquerels per kilogram, more than 20 times as high. The increase was recorded in Emergency Ordinance 297/2011 on March 27 and was in force.

The order --- Google translated

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&u=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do%3Furi%3DOJ:L:2011:080:0005:0008:DE:PDF

Why have we not been bombarded with information about this?
....... or maybe we have and I just missed it?

mike65

Just googled "12,500 becquerels per kilogram" and just got back 4 pages of links to paranoid websites. Where did this number come from?

nesf

Um, got a better source than that site? It's recommending people garden indoors this year ffs which is lunacy to anyone who knows anything about radiation.

NeitherJohn

nesf wrote: »

Um, got a better source than that site? It's recommending people garden indoors this year ffs which is lunacy to anyone who knows anything about radiation.

Agreed. 20 times almost nothing is still, essentially, almost nothing.

Johnboy1951

The regulation I linked to stays in force until 30th June 2011.

The print is very small and I am having difficulty reading it ...... have any of you read it?

Does it say what the article alleges it says, in your opinion?

NeitherJohn

EU Regulations are multi-lingual for the most part.

English version here

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:080:0005:01:EN:HTML

That said, I see no mention of any reference to limits in there. They mention a few radioactive isotopes of iodine and cesium, but no reference to Becquerel.

Johnboy1951

It does seem as if this is a load of BS

http://www.seafish.org/international-trade--distributors/legislation/legislation-news/restrictions-on-food-from-japan

http://www.seafish.org/media/Publications/March_Newsletter.pdf

It reads to me to be applying special restrictions on seafood (particularly) from designated areas of Japan, to ensure the radiation levels are in compliance with existing regulations.

http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/modules/media/news/2011/110324.html

In order to further limit possible risks to the safety of its Food Chain, the European Union decided today to reinforce controls on imports of food and feed from certain regions of Japan, where production could be affected by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Johnboy1951

I must say that having read through a lot of related pages I am still somewhat confused by it all ........ due in no small way to the number of regulations and amendments to regulations that exist.

For instance
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:201:0001:0001:EN:PDF
specifies 370 Bq/kg for milk and milk products and 600 Bq/kg for other human foodstuffs.

That was in force until 31 March 2010 ....... having been brought in about 2008 and references Chernobyl.

The old standards of 400 for baby food; 1,000 for dairy products; 1,250 for other foodstuffs and 1,000 for liquids are in
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/nuclear/radioprotection/doc/legislation/892218_en.pdf
.... dated 1989.

There are likely others too that I did not see.

It does seem likely that the 1989 standards are being applied to foodstuffs from Japan presently ...... but that is by no means certain.

It would be good if there was some clarity around this.

regards.