By SHIRLEY S. WANG
The spiking radiation in Japan is spurring fears about food safety and prompting other countries to test Japanese imports, but any contamination would have the biggest impact on the Japanese, since most fruit, vegetable, meat and seafood are consumed domestically, say experts.
Countries reliant on Japanese food imports are checking for possible radiation contamination resulting from Japan's nuclear crisis. Video courtesy of Reuters.
Regulators in India and Singapore have begun testing any Japanese-imported fresh produce for possible contamination. The European Commission also issued an alert to each of its member states Tuesday recommending additional surveillance on food products originating from Japan on or after March 15.
So far, there is no official evidence of any food contamination in Japan, according to Dave Byron, head of the food and environmental protection section in the joint division of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization and its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The joint division works directly with Japanese authorities and also has an office in the country.
The group assumes that Japanese authorities are monitoring the food supply and expects to see concrete testing data from Japan "in coming days," said Mr. Byron. Japan has not requested FAO to provide technical assistance testing food products, but FAO would be able to assist the country's authorities if asked, he said.
The extent of radiation in Japan is still being determined. But the biggest concern with radioactivity in the food supply relates to living materials, such as plants or animals, which can take up radioactive material into their structure by ingesting contaminated nutrients.
Immediate contamination could occur from particles from the air settling on plants or feed, or in the longer run radioactive elements could get washed to the soil where plants grow.
The radioactive material, once incorporated, can continue to emit powerful radiation for some amount of time—the exact duration depends on how much and what type of the radioactive material was ingested—and can be passed on if a human then eats the plant or animal.
Each dose of radioactive material ingested is associated with a small increased risk of cancer, according to Peter Caracappa, a clinical professor of nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has established an annual ingestion limit for each type of radioactive material.
After Chernobyl, radioactive iodine in contaminated milk was a problem, according to Murray McBride, a professor and soil chemist at Cornell University who studies food chain contamination. Cows are efficient at picking up the iodine from eating contaminated feed, and it appears to pass easily into their milk. In humans, iodine tends to accumulate in the thyroid and raise the risk of cancer in the organ.
Foods that are in a warehouse, such as grain silos, should be protected from contamination. And, even if such nongrowing foods were contaminated, the radioactive material could be able to be washed away. In Japan, because of the climate, many crops are grown in greenhouses, which means they could be relatively protected from radioactive fallout, according to Suresh Pillai, director of the National Center for Electron Beam Research at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
It's not clear how much food Japan is currently exporting in the wake of the earthquake. But Japan isn't a huge exporter of fresh produce to begin with. For instance, in 2010, just 9,000 tons of fresh produce was shipped from Japan to nations in the European Union, according to Frederick Vincent, the European Commission spokesman in charge of health and consumer policy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration didn't respond to request for comment on whether the U.S. would test imports from Japan.
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