Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 97. A decreasing number of countries have import regulations on food produced in Fukushima After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents, several countries introduced restrictions on agricultural and sea products imported from Japan; they requested certificates of origin and official documents reporting radiation test results for imported food. However, many countries have lifted the regulations gradually. For example, imported rice produced in the Fukushima Prefecture was suspended in 15 countries and regions including Russia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia on May 2011, but as of October 2016, the number of the countries with suspe

Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 95. Standards intended to limit radioactive substances in food are different in Japan and overseas Internal radiation exposure is caused mainly by the ingestion of radioactive substances in food. To prevent the overconsumption of food contaminated with radioactive substances, a reference value has been established. In Japan, the reference value for radioactive cesium is 100 Becquerels/kilogram, but this value varies among countries worldwide. For example, in the EU, the reference value is 1250 Becquerels/kilogram. The codex committee, a committee established by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and the Uni

Authors: MUDr Silvia Hnilicova PhD, Athina-Ioanna Daponte, Amiria Dal Grande, Fabian Schmitt, Yuki Senoo: Institution: Medical Faculty of Comenius University The S2S Project is intended to engage senior medical students to tutor second-year students in physiology to their mutual benefit; both parties will obtain a depth of knowledge and understanding of the subject. It all started in 2016, when international students from the General Medicine Department wanted to establish peer-to-peer teaching at Comenius University in Bratislava. The near-to-peer teaching technique has been established in the US and Germany as part of medical education; it has been successful thanks to the guidance, superv

Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 93. The level of the marine zone determines the level of radioactive contamination in fish. Since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, regular measurements of radioactive contamination in sea products have been conducted once a week. Each different type of saltwater fish lives under a different layer of the ocean, with regard to the depth: the surface layer, the middle layer, or the bottom layer. Immediately after the nuclear accident, radioactive substances leaked into the ocean and spread to broad areas, and, later, the substances sank to the ocean floor. For this reason, the degree of contamination among sea produc

Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 91. The level of radioactive cesium below the reference value is safe The reference value for radioactive cesium in fish and sea products is determined as 100 becquerel/kilogram: This is the same value as that of agricultural products. This reference value is designed in the following manner: The total internal radiation contamination, both from radioactive cesium and other radioactive substances such as strontium, should not exceed 1 millisievert/year. As with agricultural products, among other radioactive substances in sea products, we must pay the most attention to radioactive cesium. This is because radioactive cesium cau

Author: Laura Bajāre 1, Katrīna Krieviņa 1, Ieva Šlēziņa 1, Dana Augustova 1, Dace Osīte-Kovaļova 1 Trustee: Ivars Veģeris 2 Institution: 1 Student, Riga Stradins University / 2 Anaesthesiologist/Reanimatologist, Riga Children’s Clinical University Hospital Editor: Akihiko Ozaki, M.D., Yuki Senoo Doctors in Latvia face the problem of rising self-harm rates among children. At Riga Children’s Clinical University Hospital, at least a few children are admitted to the emergency room with intentional self-harm every month. According to a recent report, Latvia has 1.9 million citizens in 2018 with the median age of 43.6. Although the proportion of adolescent aged between 15- 29 years old was 9.45%

Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 89. The levels of radioactive contamination in squid, octopus, and shrimp are low. Since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, regular measurements of radioactive contamination in sea products have been conducted once a week. Although the overall level of radioactive contamination in seafood is continuously decreasing, as with agricultural products, the absorbed contamination of radioactive substances tends to remain in some species, but this is not the case with other species. In particular, invertebrates, such as mollusk (e.g. squid, octopus, and shellfish) and crustaceans (e.g. shrimp), tend to have lower levels of