Ocean radiation tests may ignore threat to seafood

[xchrom]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110728n1.html

The government has to release more data from ocean radiation tests to accurately assess the contamination threat to seafood, according to a statement by the Oceanographic Society of Japan.

The government should release radiation readings in seawater that are below its minimum measurement level, because even at those low quantities the radioactive elements may pose a danger when concentrated in seafood, the group, which counts 1,860 marine scientists as its members, said earlier this week.

"Depending on the species, fish have been known to accumulate as much as 100 times the amount of pollutants in the environment," said Jota Kanda, a professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology specializing in marine environment.

Radiation threats to Japan's food chain are multiplying as cesium emissions from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant spread. Aeon Co., Japan's biggest supermarket chain, said Monday 4,108 kg of beef suspected of being contaminated by radiation was inadvertently put on sale at 174 stores across the country.

[FBaggins]

1. That doesn't make sense

They didn't find the contamination in cows by measuring soil samples and then theorizing how something up the food chain might respond to it... They tested the cows.

They should continue to test fish. If they discover levels that are of concern then they can expand the testing and develop theories regarding the mechanism that brought the contamination to those fish.

[Nihil]

3. Far too logical ...

> They should continue to test fish. If they discover levels that
> are of concern then they can expand the testing

But there's no scope for mindless panic that way!

[pscot]

2. Radioactive fish is only a threat if you

can afford to eat it.