Will you temporarily stop purchasing Japanese Greens?

[Kevangogh]

Shizuoka has not yet been banned, but I would be surprised if some areas are not banned here shortly. Looks like it will go to go down on a city-by-city basis.

[beecrofter]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-0 ... ments.html

[a.serrao]

This is interesting:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/one- ... d-679.html

"One Shizuoka Tea Tested 679 Becquerels/Kg Cesium in the Final Product"

[Cole]

This is interesting:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/one- ... d-679.html

"One Shizuoka Tea Tested 679 Becquerels/Kg Cesium in the Final Product"

Yeesh -- the most worrisome part comes at the end:

"As Nikkei Shinbun reports, this [679bq/kg] "Hon-yama cha" exceeding the provisional limit was only discovered because a food grocer located outside Shizuoka Prefecture tested the tea on its own and alerted the Shizuoka government."

On a more optimistic note, I saw this little nugget from the same story (more or less) ran in the the Yomiuri Shimbun. Can anyone here give a better translation than Google?

"As a result, "Kawane tea", "Shizuoka tea Makinohara", "Kakegawa tea," tea "Motoyama" other famous localities, including minutes, were below regulatory limits. On the other hand, conducted a survey from the independent food mail order company "beyond limits" on the declaration had two tea processing factories with the county were surveyed again, the limits to produce a tea factory minute Motoyama above."

[Cole]

Great -- the sensationalism begins (really, what do you expect from the New York Post?)

People need to realize it's not ALL green tea; heck, it's not even all green tea from Shizuoka! Now I'm seeing exactly what you guys were afraid would happen

[Drax]

Great -- the sensationalism begins (really, what do you expect from the New York Post?)

People need to realize it's not ALL green tea; heck, it's not even all green tea from Shizuoka! Now I'm seeing exactly what you guys were afraid would happen

All right, I realize all of this discussion is serious business, however.... I can't help laugh about that URL name....

japan_green_tea_contaminated_with_Nu2JsMTr0IiZlFnvlsAKcJ

I hate it when I get Nu2Js in my tea...

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled over-reacting.

[Kevangogh]

Had one guy cancel his order of matcha Manten (Uji) this morning after reading that very article. I'm not even going to try to explain it - here's your money back, it's just easier.

[a.serrao]

Had one guy cancel his order of matcha Manten (Uji) this morning after reading that very article. I'm not even going to try to explain it - here's your money back, it's just easier.

Why if it's 2010 flush?
It's not even from Shizuoka prefecture...

[a.serrao]

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled over-reacting.

[/quote]

Wanna buy japanese green tea?
Fine. But let people stay informed. Because everyone has a brain to decide.
I take for granted that people is smart enough to assess all the factors.

[Drax]

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled over-reacting.

Wanna buy japanese green tea?
Fine. But let people stay informed. Because everyone has a brain to decide.
I take for granted that people is smart enough to asses all the factors.

Heh, a typo that ends up being perhaps more appropriate?

I highly recommend that you read the comments in that linked article to see what *I* was referring to. I especially liked the "the whole country is contaminated" comment. There's a guy who's "smart enough." And meanwhile, some poor Japanese student or professor is trying her best to provide useful information to worried people....

Edit: by the way, please be careful how you use the "quote" function. You have quoted Cole as making the "over-reacting" comment, but I'm the one who said it.

[Kevangogh]

Example: E-coli was found in eggs in Iowa, and Iowa is in the USA, so that means that all eggs in USA have e-coli. That's essentially what some irresponsible news outlets are saying about Japanese green tea and radiation, it's ridiculous.

[a.serrao]

I highly recommend that you read the comments in that linked article to see what *I* was referring to. I especially liked the "the whole country is contaminated" comment. There's a guy who's "smart enough." And meanwhile, some poor Japanese student or professor is trying her best to provide useful information to worried people....

Corrected typo and quote.
Putting an article that informs rather like impress is not over-reacting.
People read the article, discern the good and the bad, make up their mind and act accordingly, I hope, for the best.
Obviously saying that all Japan is radioactive is not over-reacting, it's just meaningless. I understand it, you do, everybody does it.

[a.serrao]

Example: E-coli was found in eggs in Iowa, and Iowa is in the USA, so that means that all eggs in USA have e-coli. That's essentially what some irresponsible news outlets are saying about Japanese green tea and radiation, it's ridiculous.

We in EU are facing a similar problem with the outbreak of a rather rare strain of E.coli.
Not all E.coli are made equal, nor all japanese tea is radioactive.
I as a customer I'd react positively if I could make an educated choice.

[Chip]

As I read this topic ... thoughts center on a few fundamental points.

We all know radiation was released and there is tea contamination. Many lives and livlihoods are being affected by this continuing saga.

We know that contamination is geographically limited, not all of Japan nor all of Japan's tea has been affected.

Not all tea farmers nor government officials are evil and they are not all misleading the public. I believe there are many farmers who are very concerned not only about themselves, but also do not want to release contaminated tea that is potentially harmful to the general public. And there are officials attempting to right the ship and will not tolerate false reporting nor cover-ups.

Posting of sensational media or other accounts that offer little fact and paint in very broad strokes really do not help anyone make educated decisions. They really have no place on TeaChat since we are all wise to sensational tactics of the media ... and we all know much more than these sensational accounts report. Posting of such accounts only serves to add credibilty where none is really warranted.

These broad strokes also do much more harm than good. While I have remained rather reserved on these issues, I intend to be much more vocal going forward.

Information that is helpful would include specific information hopefully citing sources and actual readings and how the readings were obtained and as much specific information as possible.

No more broad strokes, please.

Thanks.

[verus]

I totally understand why some customers would not buy tea from Japan right now, it's strange that it only turns out now that tea from Kanagawa was affected. I'm certainly not blaming the producers, they're very much the victims in this, but I do blame the authorities for failing to notice this earlier. Such failure gives rise to more suspicions about produce from Japan.

edit: That said, I do believe most of the tea is safe. But simply asking for clarity is not the same as panicking.