The Japanese government’s declared all beef surpassing the “allowable limit” of caesium contamination will be purchased and destroyed. So that’s good!
But it’s not enough. Caesium’s isotopes – the Fukushima-spread 137 in particular – are very, very nasty. They stay in your system, and take a long time to degrade. This can mean cancer. Given the government’s spotty (and irresponsible) record of making their “safe limits” somewhat arbitrary in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, we’d hope they’d err heavily on the side of caution when it comes to destroying this toxic meat. Tracking down the tainted cows (and the caesium-laced hay they chomped on) won’t be easy, but it could mean sparing the meat-eating Japanese population exposure to some very, very nasty stuff. [via Kyodo News]
nicky
Friday, July 22, 2011 at 1:59 PMerr heavily on the side of caution? why, the masks they walk around wearing in normal everyday life doesn’t indicate that there are already massive, massive problems?
creamy
Friday, July 22, 2011 at 8:19 PMnot alot of them wear the masks, just seems too look like alot of them wear it in photos and all
Steve
Friday, July 22, 2011 at 11:35 PMWhy wear the masks? Do they think the meat is giving off radiation to their faces? Just don’t eat the stuff.
Jen
Sunday, July 24, 2011 at 9:00 PMThe masks are not necessarily a consequence of fears about radiation, they’re common even in everyday normal situations in quite a few Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. The reasons why they wear them vary from person to person- illness, trying to avoid breathing polluted or smoggy air etc.