Consumer Warning: Geiger Counters / Dosimeters That Do Not Work
After the Fukushima nuclear accident, demand for radiation measuring equipment skyrocketed in Japan. Many consumers were worried about trusting official government figures, and insisted on buying their own geiger counters so they could check the radiation levels around their homes and neighborhoods. The increased demand led many shops to import large numbers of cheap geiger counters and dosimeters from China.
Unfortunately, it seems that quite a few of them were faulty. The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan randomly selected nine different low cost radiation measuring devices that were being sold via online shops. All were apparently made in China, and all were being sold for less than 100,000 yen. All of them failed accuracy tests.
The exact models tested were as follows:
- AK2011
- BS2011+
- DoseRAE2 PRM-1200
- DP802i
- FJ2000
- JB4020
- RAY2000A
- SW83
- SW83a
All had serious problems with accuracy. Some displayed inaccurately high readings, while others were unable to correctly measure radiation levels below 0.06 microsieverts. In one test involving radioactive cesium, a device measured radiation at 30% lower than the actual value.
Consumers weren’t the only ones duped into buying equipment that doesn’t work. According to the Mainichi, Tokyo authorities have been using seventy DoseRAE2 PRM-1200′s to conduct tests of radiation levels in the air.
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