Radiation rises in Tokyo water By Minoru MATSUTANI

 Don't let babies under age 1 drink from the tap, officials say.

monitor in Tokyo 15 March 2011

 Radioactive iodine exceeding the government's regulated level for infants was detected Wednesday in water in a purification plant in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo, prompting the metropolitan government to advise residents not to let babies younger than 1 year old drink tap water or powdered milk made with tap water, in the 23 wards and five cities.  

 The iodine-131 was detected in water taken Tuesday from the Kanamachi Purification Plant. The level was 210 becquerels per liter of water, more than double the recommended level of 100 becquerels for infants stipulated in the Food Sanitation Act, according to Ei Yoshida, manager of Tokyo's Waterworks Bureau.

 "The level is not dangerous unless you keep drinking the water for a long period of time," Yoshida told a news conference. "If there is nothing else to drink, you can let babies drink the water every once in a while."

 Water from the plant goes to all of 23 wards as well as the suburbs of Musashino, Mitaka, Machida, Tama and Inagi in western Tokyo.

 The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry backed Yoshida's remark.

 "The regulated level, 100 becquerels per liter, is a level at which people can have babies drink for a long time without worrying about radiation," said Kazuya Kumagai of the ministry's Water Supply Division.

 He advised parents to use bottled water to make powdered milk, but added that they shouldn't panic even if babies have drunk tap water.

 Later in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano offered assurances that adults can drink tap water and use it in everyday life.

 If stores run out of bottled water, boiling faucet water will help reduce toxicity to some extent, radiation experts said.

 Immediately after the announcement by the metropolitan government, a team of radiotherapists, physicists and nuclear engineers at the University of Tokyo released their take on the contamination of tap water on the group's Twitter account.

 "Iodine-131, when contained in water, can be removed to some extent by boiling it," the team said.

 Iodine-131's half-life — the period by which the radiation level is halved — is eight days.

 For all people over the age of 1, 300 becquerels per liter of water is the standard regulated level, but pregnant and breast-feeding women may want to tighten the standard to 100 becquerels per liter, Kumagai said.

 The metropolitan government collected water from its Kanamachi, Asaka and Ozaku purification plants Tuesday to check the density of radioactive substances.

©japantimes.co.jp

BMW Laptop Messenger Bag