As smoke again rises, a warning on water: The workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant were again forced to evacuate as black smoke began to rise from Reactor 3, which as the video details is the lone reactor to utilize plutonium, making such a sight somewhat more serious than normal (though certainly, smoke pouring from any nuclear reactor is bad news). At the same time, parents in Tokyo are being told that babies and young children should not drink the tap water, as it contains high levels (nearly double the legal limit) of radioactive iodine. source
water Officials discovered safe but high levels of radioactive iodine in the drinking water of five Japanese cities, including Tokyo, during a radiation test. They were trace amounts that were within acceptable legal limits, however.
food Officials also discovered high radiation levels in milk and spinach near Fukushima. In the case of the spinach, eating it every day for a year would be equal to 20 percent of the level of radiation you’d get from a CAT scan. source
» What happens next: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says that they’ll continue to test food products, and if they find contaminated products, they’ll ban them from the market. Some experts are understandably skeptical. “They should seriously think about restricting any agricultural products in that area,” said Lam Ching-wan of the University of Hong Kong School of Medicine. “It seems that the whole ecosystem could be affected, so they shouldn’t take any chances.” The radiation factor of milk and spinach is important to note, because after Chernobyl, many cancer cases resulted from children who ingested high levels of radiation in milk.
The NYT has a pretty interesting feature about how tap water is really, really dangerous and relatively unregulated. Stick with the bottles, kids.
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