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Home >Expats Living in ShanghaiRadiation on spinach in China.
Update：2013-12-10 00:56 Views：
RADIOACTIVE iodine-131 had been found on spinach in Beijing, Tianjin and Henan, China's National Nuclear Emergency Coordination Committee said yesterday.But the amounts were one thousandth to three thousandth the legal limit stipulated in China's national radiation safety standard, according to the committee's daily statement, which said the results were based on checks carried out on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Health also issued a statement last night saying that traces of iodine-131 had been found in spinach planted in open fields in the three regions.
According to the ministry, it has been proved that washing the spinach in water could effectively remove radioactive material.
It is believed that recent rain in the regions helped the radioactive iodine drop from the air onto the fields, the ministry said.
The current trace amounts of radioactive material in food will not pose any threat to public health, and there is no need to take protective measures against contamination, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention officials said yesterday that nothing abnormal had been detected in local food or drinking water.
Gao Linfeng, director of the Shanghai CDC's radiation health department, said the city was regularly checking drinking water sources and food, including green-leaf vegetables, grown on local farms.
"We haven't found radioactive substances in our tests," he said.
"The government will inform the public if radioactive substances are found in the city," he added
A total of 14 provinces and municipalities are monitoring drinking water and food for radioactive substances, as required by the Ministry of Health, since March 26, when iodine-131 was first detected in the air above China.
The committee said that all 31 provincial regions on the mainland detected radioactive iodine-131 in the air yesterday. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region found both iodine-131 and caesium-137, while another 20 regions, including Shanghai, found iodine-131, caesium-137 and caesium-134 from the quake and tsunami damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan.
The committee said the levels were much lower than the natural background radiation.
The level of iodine-131 in the air above Shanghai on Tuesday was eight times that of last week, but officials from the Shanghai Radiation Environment Supervision Agency said that dropped by a half yesterday.
Radiation levels were still extremely low and there was no danger posed to public health or the environment.
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