[ RadSafe ] Supposedly Highly radioactive trout caught in Fukushima river

[Brad Keck]

Roger,

An English version of the article (Asahi Shimbun) may be found at:   http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201211130032

As often happens, the whole of the data is not reported here, but only the extremes of the putative dataset.  This, of course, is a huge error of logic since any rational decision would be based on the data in entirety if of an adequate sampling design, but not just upon the outliers of the dataset shown here.  If anyone has access to the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture report, presumably that would contain all the data.  A recent report on saltwater fish did exactly this, and I presume the freshwater data would be presented similarly as a formal document.  

As to how much is too much, if you consider that a typical Japanese adult eats approximately 70 kg of fish per year, and you assume all of this is at the limit of 100 Bq/kg (which is pretty conservative since MOST fish is well below this level), then a year's consumption would be 7,000 Bq - hardly a "highly radioactive" diet.  This would constitute a dose of about  0.1 mSv.   I suspect the problem of Cs clearance in freshwater fish is quite like the reindeer following Chernobyl, so perhaps someone involved in those investigations can comment.  

Even my researchers, who are technically oriented and familiar with radiation describe any detectable radiation as "hot" - a term I deplore for many reasons in this context, so there is a near complete inability of the average person to discriminate between that which is measurable and that which is  hazardous.   The emotions of food, feeding one's children and traditions of fishing  invariably worsen this.  

Bananas and brazil nuts have a few hundred Bq/kg (40K) so they are not that different, but no one ever sold a radioactive trout because it was only as radioactive as a banana!  I hope to travel to Japan early next year, and will provide a review of mountain trout crusted in brazil nuts  :}    

Best,

Bradly Keck, PhD, CHP




On Nov 17, 2012, at 1:03 AM, Roger Helbig wrote:

> Is this fish really "highly radioactive"?  What would be the number of
> Bq in a kilo of bananas or a kilo of Brazil Nuts?  Does anyone on the
> list have a subscription to the Kyodo News Service?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Roger Helbig
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: nuclear-news <comment-reply at wordpress.com>
> Date: Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 8:59 PM
> Subject: [New post] Highly radioactive trout caught in Fukushima river
> http://enenews.com/kyodo-radioactive-trout-over-100-times-govt-limit-caught-in-fukushima-river
> November 16th, 2012
> 
> http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/11/194389.html(Subscription
> Only)  Title: Fukushima trout log rad"
> 
> Highly radioactive trout caught in Fukushima river
> 
> by Christina MacPherson
> 
> Source: Kyodo
> Date: Nov. 17, 2010
> 
> A mountain trout caught in a Fukushima Prefecture river [Niida River
> in Minamisoma city] returned a radioactive cesium reading of 11,400
> becquerels per kilogram, more than 100 times the government-set limit
> for food items, a survey by the Environment Ministry said Friday.
> [...]
> 
> The survey conducted in June and July also found 4,400 becquerels of
> radioactive cesium in a smallmouth bass and 3,000 becquerels in a
> catfish in Mano Dam in Iitate village, another municipality heavily
> affected by the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
> run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. [...]
> See also: Asahi: Gov't worried about highly radioactive fish -- Why
> are radiation readings still 100s of times over official safe
> 
> Christina MacPherson | November 17, 2012 at 4:59 am | Categories:
> environment, Fukushima 2012, Japan | URL: http://wp.me/phgse-8A3
> 
> http://nuclear-news.net/2012/11/17/highly-radioactive-trout-caught-in-fukushima-river/
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