food + health
Fukushima media coverage ‘may be harmful’ – health – 30 August 2011 – New Scientist
One report, in UK newspaper The Independent, quoted a scientist who predicted more than a million would die, and that the prolonged release of radioactivity from Fukushima would make health effects worse than those from the sudden release experienced at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine. “We’ve got to stop these sorts of reports coming [...]
Japan’s life expectancy ‘down to equality and public health measures’ | World news | The Guardian
Some interesting statistics on Japan’s longevity in this Guardian article: A baby girl born in Japan today can expect to live to 86 and a boy to nearly 80. But it has not always been so. According to a paper in a Lancet series on healthcare in Japan, this is a rise of 30 years [...]
58 nanosieverts in Tokyo | Lenz Blog
As measured this morning. I haven’t done one of these posts in a while, since the figures are rather constantly around 60 now. That compares to about 80 in Munich, my home town in Germany, and is of course perfectly safe. In contrast, CO2 levels are unacceptably high world wide at over 392 ppm and [...]
Price of wheat to jump 2% | The Japan Times Online
Despite living in Japan since Commodore Perry and his Black Ships, I didn’t know that the Japanese government set the price of imported wheat. And if they are raising the price because prices rose on the Chicago futures market, then why the need for the government to set the price, anyway? The government will raise [...]
Fukushima rice tests show no contamination | The Japan Times Online
I wonder what percentage of consumers this will convince? I suspect fewer than a year ago, and fewer than even a couple of months ago. FUKUSHIMA — No radioactive substances were found in newly harvested rice in Fukushima Prefecture, prefectural officials said Thursday. Rice growers in the prefecture, which hosts the leaking Fukushima No. 1 [...]
How dangerous to human health is radioactive cesium?
On March 25th, 2011, Lewis Page wrote, nobody has ever been able to show that this isotope [caesium-137] has any health consequences at all: huge amounts were emitted from Chernobyl, but no discernible illnesses have resulted. However, Page is perhaps not a reliable source of information. A commenter on this blog wrote, It seems Mr. [...]
Experts urge great caution over radiation risks | The Japan Times Online
This is a June article, but it includes a useful chart of radiation limits for Japan and other countries for various food types, a matter which is unfortunately becoming daily of increasingly vital interests to many. I don’t think anyone can foresee the serious and long-term effects of this spread of radiation. The risks are [...]
How to get rid of radioactive caesium?
Back in April, TEPCO was dropping bags of zeolite into the ocean. Also in April, the Japanese police arrested two people for selling medicine without a license. The headline says “fake radiation drug”, but the article says nothing about the efficacy of the product they were selling, “Premium Zeolite”. However, I doubt TEPCO would be [...]
Radioactive Rice to Come? Rice Growing in a Rice Paddy with 35,000 Becquerels/kg of Radioactive Cesium? | EX-SKF
The transfer factor from the soil to rice is considered to be about 0.1. 35,000 becquerels/kg in soil may result in 3,500 becquerels/kg of harvested rice, 7 times the provisional safety limit which is already far too loose for the staple like rice. I’ve found the video clip for this part. It’s the rice paddy [...]
Irradiated food poses moral dilemmas | The Japan Times Online
Not “moral dilemmas” but economic choices. Clearly, the writer knows little or no economics, or she/he wouldn’t write such obvious nonsense. Still there are a few gems of information in this article. I’ll pick out a few for you so you don’t have to read the whole thing, and pollute your mind with a-economic tripe [...]
