Will you temporarily stop purchasing Japanese Greens?

[olivierco]

That and the radioactive Iodine 131 was detected only in Fukushima, anyone ever bought Fukushima shincha?

There is some tea production in Sayama (Saitama), north of Tokyo. It seems to be the northern limit where tea can grow.

[entropyembrace]

That and the radioactive Iodine 131 was detected only in Fukushima, anyone ever bought Fukushima shincha?

There is some tea production in Sayama (Saitama), north of Tokyo. It seems to be the northern limit where tea can grow.

That´s the point is that tea can´t actually grow in the contaminated region.

[olivierco]

Care to explain? That doesn´t make any sense at all to me. If you seal iodine-131 in a package it still decays into stable non-radioactive Xenon-131 in a matter of days and the beta and gamma radiation does not sit around.

If a product has an half life of 8 days, you still have after 16 days 25% of the product. All depends what you call "a matter of days"

[olivierco]

That and the radioactive Iodine 131 was detected only in Fukushima, anyone ever bought Fukushima shincha?

There is some tea production in Sayama (Saitama), north of Tokyo. It seems to be the northern limit where tea can grow.

That´s the point is that tea can´t actually grow in the contaminated region.

Saitama is next to Ibaraki which isn't what I would call a non contaminated area
http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870

[zeto]

Reposted from another thread:


"Japanese officials yesterday reclassified the rating of the accident at the plant from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale, putting it on par with the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the US.

The International Nuclear Event Scale defines a Level 4 incident as having local consequences and a Level 5 as having wider consequences." Some countries think that it should be classified as level 6.

Small amounts of radioactive materials have been found in their water now, even far from the source, and trace amounts have been detected all the way across in Southern California. Larger amounts have been detected in soil, but still apparently relatively safe. However it's important to know that the explosions and lack of cooling capacity did allow the radioactive materials to burn directly into the atmosphere.

"Early on Saturday, Japan announced that radiation was detected in spinach and milk produced near the Fukushima nuclear plant. While the levels were low enough to not pose a long-term threat to human health, they were above the national safety level, so the Japanese government has stopped sales of food products from near the damaged plant." Some countries are banning all imports from Japan.

Bottom line is that all products from Japan right now should be considered potentially contaminated. Most tea growing areas are fairly far away however I would only consider purchasing products from Japan that have been extensively tested. Current crops tested for radioactivity and disclosed as parts per trillion safe I would accept.

[entropyembrace]

The radiation levels on the map for Ibaraki are below 700 nGy/hr which is <0.07 mrem/hr

To give you an idea how little radiation that is...

Eating a banana exposes you to 0.01 mrem from the radioactive potassium 40

Sleeping next to your spouse for 8 hours exposes you to 0.05 mrem of radiation from the radioactive isotopes in their body.

Or if you live in Denver your hourly radiation dose is 0.11 mrem/hr

[verus]

We'll see....the whole situation isn't even resolved yet.

When the power plant situation is completely settled and measurements and testing point out that the danger is minimal or non-existant, then I certainly won't avoid Japanese tea.

[SlientSipper]

I'm going to go on a mini tea shopping spree when I get to Uji.
I'm going to stock up on lots when I get there.

Worrying about Japanese tea from radiation is like worrying about the safety of the Philly Cheese Steaks when Hurricane Katrina hit.

HELLO!?

[fire_snake]

Just ordered some Yame Gyokuro (nami and gokujo) from japantea.org.

I'm more worried about Canada Customs than I am about any alleged radiation in the tea, which at this point is infinitesimal and probably nonexistent.

[verus]

I'm going to go on a mini tea shopping spree when I get to Uji.
I'm going to stock up on lots when I get there.

Worrying about Japanese tea from radiation is like worrying about the safety of the Philly Cheese Steaks when Hurricane Katrina hit.

HELLO!?

Or worrying about the safety of milk in Germany after the Chernobyl accident. Chernobyl dumped radioactive stuff all over Europe, leading to deleterious health effects even at over a thousand kilometers away form the accident site.

Fukushima probably isn't going to be as bad as Chernobyl, but it's still normal that people are worried about it.

[JBaymore]

The radiation levels on the map for Ibaraki are below 700 nGy/hr which is <0.07 mrem/hr

To give you an idea how little radiation that is...

Eating a banana exposes you to 0.01 mrem from the radioactive potassium 40

Sleeping next to your spouse for 8 hours exposes you to 0.05 mrem of radiation from the radioactive isotopes in their body.

Or if you live in Denver your hourly radiation dose is 0.11 mrem/hr

Thank you for adding some nice dose of critical thinking into all the radiation hysteia. The simple mention of the word "radiation" apparently seems to make many people loose this capacity.

It may yet turn out that there is more reason for concern...... but a lot of the data and comments from people who supposedly KNOW seems to point to this being important... but not the absurd stuff that is driving so many to buying up potassium iodide pills, iodized salt, and stocks of kelp and other seaweeds.

Anyone who did not think that some radiation products beyond background levels would not turn up in many places kind of does not understand things. Radiocative stuff was released into the environment. It is all about the amount / exposure issues.

best,

.................john

[Chip]

As posted on the GreenTeaForum ...

FYI, I expect we will be back in operation in about 1.5~2 weeks, probably from Uji.

So it appears that Kevin and O-Cha are relocating to Uji from Fukushima, seems like a prudent move.

[AdamMY]

Or worrying about the safety of milk in Germany after the Chernobyl accident. Chernobyl dumped radioactive stuff all over Europe, leading to deleterious health effects even at over a thousand kilometers away form the accident site.

Fukushima probably isn't going to be as bad as Chernobyl, but it's still normal that people are worried about it.

What comes into play here is the difference between the Chernobyl facility and the Daiichi plant. The Chernobyl factories reactor used Graphite inside the reactor among the nuclear material, and when the reactor core started to melt the graphite caught fire and sent much larger amounts of nuclear material into the atmosphere. The Daiichi plant does not use Graphite, nor anything nearly as combustible as Graphite, so you are right in saying this is not as bad as Chernobyl, and in terms of radioactive material being sent into the atmosphere it is my understanding that Chernobyl was far far worse.

[Oni]

I have received an e-mail from Maiko, that said that there is no problem with Uji and Kyoto and Kyotonabe, and they are shipping from Osaka airport, that has no problems, so it is absolutely safe to order tea from them, and I assume all tea producing regions are far from the reactor.
P.S. The mass hysteria is worst for the economy than the incident itself, so these import bans, that have no scientific support are useless and harm Japanese economy, they only slow down things, I will not take part of this, I will order my normal dose of shincha.

[Kevangogh]

Japanese green tea is not grown anywhere near where the nuke plant in Fukushima is. If your tea was shipped through Narita airport in Tokyo instead of through Osaka, it would make zero difference. This is starting to get ridiculous.