RE: A real question, not SI Units

["H. Weiß" <weiss@esn.de>]

Stephane Jean-Francois wrote:


> Seriously, I read in the newspaper today that there is still some goodies
> (fruits, mushrooms etc.) that are refused by the European Union market
> because they exceed 600 Bq per kg
>
> The question (hope it is not too simplistic): Who check (Federal Body) for
> those small amounts in food and how it is done ? Do they take one
> strawberry, weight it, count it and multiply by the total weight? Who is in
> charge of that ? Isn't it a small limit ?
>
I presume you are talking about Cs-137, which was significantly present
in our food after Tschernobyl.

Of course it is a small limit, if you consider that only a small portion
of your diet consists of such goods. (I know few people who eat large
amounts of deer or those few sorts of mushrooms which read such values.)
On the other hand it is not so small if you compare with typical values
for foodstuff which are about three decades lower. So we can well afford
to reject goods that are contaminated on this level.
Let's calculate an example: 40kg x 600 Bq/kg (i.e. 4 ounzes a day over a
period of one year) result in a dose of 30 mrem. This seems to be a
reasonable limit for things that aren't a principal part of the diet but
which are mixed into it in significant amounts on a regular basis. I
always find it a little farfetched to apply this limit to tea and
spices.

My opinion which not necessarily coincides with that of my boss or our
customers.

Greetings, Harald

--
Harald Weiss                             weiss@esn.de
EnergieSystemeNord GmbH                  Tel.  +49-431-66 00-117
Hopfenstrasse 1d  D-24114 Kiel           Fax   +49-431-66 00-234
Postfach 1929     D-24018 Kiel           Mobil +49-171-64 55 759
..


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