Dr. Tsubokura's Radiation Lecture Vol.11

Author: Masaharu Tsubokura

Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo

21. Type of food affects a level of contamination in the body

The primary cause of internal exposure is ingestion of contaminated food, not inhalation of contaminated air.

To avoid taking in contaminated food, "the place of production" is not important. Various inspections have confirmed that the "type of food" influences the level of contamination. Indeed, specific "types of food" such as mushrooms, some wild vegetables, and meat, could be associated with contamination which would exceed the standard value, although its frequency is on the decrease year by year.

On the other hand, rice and vegetables are safe most of the time and “the place of production" regardless of whether they were made in Fukushima or grown in the home garden, does not affect the level of radiation exposure.

Radioactive cesium strongly binds to mud, and rice and many vegetables are not "type" of food that are easily contaminated. Tens of thousands of internal exposure conducted so far have confirmed this fact.

22. Distributed Food is Not Exposed to Radiation

The primary cause of internal exposure is the consumption of contaminated food. To avoid contamination in marketed food, they inspect all of the food before processing.

In the data obtained from the Whole-Body Counter examination conducted in Minamisoma city for 4 years, none of the people who ate food from the market had an increased internal exposure dose.

There are various food choices such as avoiding/not avoiding food produced in Fukushima Prefecture and food grown in your home garden, etc.. but none of these choices affected the individual exposure dose. All kinds of food contain natural radioactive substances, and, more or less, a certain level of radiation is present in the environment.

The influence of radiation exposure is determined not by its existence, but of its "quantity."When purchasing food at supermarkets, "place of the production" does not change the “quantity” of radioactive substances.

This is the result of the fantastic efforts of farmers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Japanese version of the manuscript was originally published in Fukushima Minyu, a local newspaper in Fukushima prefecture, Japan, on May 30th and June 7th 2015, and was reproduced for MRIC Global under the author's permission.