Regulators Continue to Address Radiation Concerns
The World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have continued to address public concerns about food produced in Japan, where a recent earthquake and tsunami compromised the Fukushima prefecture’s nuclear power plant, releasing radiation into the atmosphere. According to WHO, which has published a list of frequently asked questions about the disaster, “[f]ood safety issues are an additional dimension of the emergency,” with some products likely to be deemed unsafe for human consumption. In areas where contamination has occurred, the organization has specifically urged citizens to avoid consuming milk or vegetables, slaughtering animals, hunting, harvesting aquatic animals and plants, or collecting other wild foods such as mushrooms. It has also asked producers to take numerous precautions to protect vegetables, livestock and rice harvests from fallout. “The presence of radioactivity in some vegetables and milk has been confirmed and some of the initial food monitoring results show radioactive iodine detected in concentrations above the Japanese regulatory limits,” stated WHO, which has also confirmed the presence of radioactive cesium in lower concentrations. See Reuters, March 21, 2011.
Meanwhile, FDA has assured domestic consumers that “screening at U.S.
borders will remain vigilant and will be augmented with radiation screening
of shipments.” The agency has since blocked all milk, spinach and kakina
imports from Fukushima, as well as spinach and kakina from the nearby
prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma, while delaying other shipments
from these four regions until they are “shown to be free from radionuclide
contamination.” As Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reiterated, however,
U.S. food imports from Japan are “quite limited” and must meet federal safety
standards. “[A]t this time we have no reason to suggest that any of our meat,
poultry, or processed egg products are unsafe for consumption due to the
recent events in Japan,” he said in a March 18, 2011, press release. See The New
York Times and Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2011.
These assurances were echoed on the West Coast by California Governor Jerry Brown (D), who in a March 18, 2011, press release indicated a radiation plume drifting over the Pacific Ocean poses “no threat” to domestic food and water supplies. Although health officials have reportedly pledged to screen the state’s milk for signs of radiation, they have nevertheless warned residents not to take potassium iodide and other precautionary measures because of the risk of significant side effects. “The California Department of Public Health and our Emergency Management Agency are in constant contact with the federal agencies responsible for monitoring radiation levels in California, and we will tell the public if any precautions become necessary,” said Brown. See Bloomberg News, March 18, 2011.
Some media outlets have also cited experts like Peter Caracappa, a health
physicist at Renssealaer Polytechnic Institute, who told NPR that a person
would need to drink more than 58,000 glasses of milk containing 1,510
becquerels of radiation per kilogram to raise her lifetime cancer risk by 4
percent. But attorneys quoted in a March 22, 2011, Law360 article urged
companies not to take such statistics or regulatory precautions for granted.
“U.S. companies would be wise to conduct their own testing or lean on their
suppliers to insure imports are radiation-free. If contaminated food hits the
U.S. market, every company involved in the supply chain could find themselves
facing litigation,” concludes the report. See NPR, March 21, 2011.
