Tokyo water supply contaminated and unsafe for babies
Levels have risen to more than twice the safe limit, adding to fears about food safety.
Radiation has already seeped into vegetables, raw milk, and sea water since the quake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant nearly two weeks ago.
Broccoli was added to a list of contaminated vegetables and the US banned Japanese dairy and other produce from the region.
Scientists said tap water in Tokyo measured 210 becquerels per litre — more than twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels per litre for infants.
“It is really scary. It is like a vicious negative spiral from the nuclear disaster,” said Etsuko Nomura, a mother of two children aged two and five. “We have contaminated milk and vegetables, and now tap water in Tokyo, and I’m wondering what’s next.”
Infants are particularly vulnerable to radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer, experts say.
The limits refer to sustained consumption rates, and officials urged calm, saying parents should stop giving the tap water to babies, but that it was no worry if they already had consumed small amounts. They said the levels posed no immediate health risk for children or adults.
“Even if you drink this water for one year, it will not affect people’s health,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
Experts say iodine-131 dissipates quickly in the air, with half of it disappearing every eight days.
The unsettling new development affecting Japan’s largest city, home to some 13 million in the city centre and 39 million residents in the greater Tokyo area, came as nuclear officials struggled to stabilise the damaged reactor 225km to the north.
Explosions and fires have erupted in four of the plant’s six reactors, leaking radioactive steam into the air. Progress in cooling the overheated facility has been intermittent, disrupted by rises in radiation, elevated pressure in reactors and overheated storage pools.
The plant operator had hoped to restore power to cooling pumps at the unit within days, but experts warned the work included the risk of sparking fires as electricity is restored through equipment potentially damaged in the tsunami.
In a new setback, black smoke billowed from Unit 3, prompting another evacuation of workers from the plant today.
“We don’t know the reason” for the smoke, a Nuclear Safety Agency spokesman said.
Meanwhile, fallout from Japan’s damaged nuclear plant is expected to reach Europe this week, but experts say the particles will be minuscule.A plume from the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex carrying trace amounts of radioactive iodine has been detected in Iceland, the country’s Radiation Safety Authority said.
For those close to the crippled Japanese plant, the situation is very different and could keep getting worse. According to Austria’s Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, local weather conditions at the end of the week could bring more radioactivity inland instead of out to the Pacific.
