City Failed to Fully Disclose Tap Water Radiation Data
Yesterday, FTV news reported some interesting information about radiation in tap water. Although the radiation levels for the Kanto region have dropped since a brief spike was recorded about a week ago, some new concerns have come to light:
- Some companies that produce ice have suspended creation of new ice blocks. One company in Chiba prefecture, which provides ice to fish markets, will soon run out of old ice in its warehouse. If concerns about radiation in tap water are not put to rest, there may soon be serious ice shortages in the Kanto region.
- In the city of Ushiku in Ibaraki Prefecture, the local government released tap water radiation data for last week that showed iodine remaining below the 100 bq/l safety level for infants. However, it has been revealed that a test on the night of the 24th found that iodine was at 124.9 bq/l. Because a test a few hours later found that levels had dropped below 100 bq/l, the city decided to not inform residents of the 124.9 bq/l reading.
- The Tokyo city government made a rather serious mistake when announcing the areas that received tainted tap water from the Katsushika purification plant. They didn’t include Hachioji in their list, even though some areas of Hachioji were using tap water from Katsushika. City employees have apparently been going door to door in those areas to inform residents of the error.
News like this makes it look like we won’t be seeing a quick end to the rampant hoarding of bottled water.
Although it’s been almost a day since the story broke in the Japanese language media, I haven’t seen any English language media reports about the Ushiku radiation data. The slowness to report a story with such potential scare value almost makes one think that they aren’t paying attention to the domestic media.
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