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The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture

On 11 March 2011, Japan experienced a massive earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, resulting in the release of large amounts of cesium-134 and -137 into the atmosphere. In addition to the food radioactivity control in the markets throughou...

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Autores principales: Kunii, Nobuaki, Fujimura, Maya Sophia, Komasa, Yukako, Kitamura, Akiko, Sato, Hitoshi, Takatsuji, Toshihiro, Jimba, Masamine, Kimura, Shinzo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30340414
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102289
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author Kunii, Nobuaki
Fujimura, Maya Sophia
Komasa, Yukako
Kitamura, Akiko
Sato, Hitoshi
Takatsuji, Toshihiro
Jimba, Masamine
Kimura, Shinzo
author_facet Kunii, Nobuaki
Fujimura, Maya Sophia
Komasa, Yukako
Kitamura, Akiko
Sato, Hitoshi
Takatsuji, Toshihiro
Jimba, Masamine
Kimura, Shinzo
author_sort Kunii, Nobuaki
collection PubMed
description On 11 March 2011, Japan experienced a massive earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, resulting in the release of large amounts of cesium-134 and -137 into the atmosphere. In addition to the food radioactivity control in the markets throughout the country, radiocesium concentrations in locally grown foods were voluntarily inspected and the results were shown to the residents by the local government to raise their awareness of the internal radiation contamination risk from low knowledge in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture. In this longitudinal study, local food products for in-home consumption were evaluated by seven different food radioactivity measuring devices in Nihonmatsu City from 2011–2017. Radiocesium was detected in local foods in Nihonmatsu City even six years after the FDNPP accident. The highest number of products tested was in 2012, with the number steadily decreasing thereafter. Most foods had contamination levels that were within the provisional regulation limits. As edible wild plants and mushrooms continue to possess high radiocesium concentrations, new trends in radioactivity in foods like seeds were discovered. This study highlights that the increased risk of radiation exposure could possibly be due to declining radiation awareness among citizens and food distributors. We recommend the continuation of food monitoring procedures at various points in the food processing line under the responsibility of the government to raise awareness for the reduction of future risks of internal exposure.
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spelling pubmed-62100922018-11-02 The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture Kunii, Nobuaki Fujimura, Maya Sophia Komasa, Yukako Kitamura, Akiko Sato, Hitoshi Takatsuji, Toshihiro Jimba, Masamine Kimura, Shinzo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article On 11 March 2011, Japan experienced a massive earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, resulting in the release of large amounts of cesium-134 and -137 into the atmosphere. In addition to the food radioactivity control in the markets throughout the country, radiocesium concentrations in locally grown foods were voluntarily inspected and the results were shown to the residents by the local government to raise their awareness of the internal radiation contamination risk from low knowledge in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture. In this longitudinal study, local food products for in-home consumption were evaluated by seven different food radioactivity measuring devices in Nihonmatsu City from 2011–2017. Radiocesium was detected in local foods in Nihonmatsu City even six years after the FDNPP accident. The highest number of products tested was in 2012, with the number steadily decreasing thereafter. Most foods had contamination levels that were within the provisional regulation limits. As edible wild plants and mushrooms continue to possess high radiocesium concentrations, new trends in radioactivity in foods like seeds were discovered. This study highlights that the increased risk of radiation exposure could possibly be due to declining radiation awareness among citizens and food distributors. We recommend the continuation of food monitoring procedures at various points in the food processing line under the responsibility of the government to raise awareness for the reduction of future risks of internal exposure. MDPI 2018-10-18 2018-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6210092/ /pubmed/30340414 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102289 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kunii, Nobuaki
Fujimura, Maya Sophia
Komasa, Yukako
Kitamura, Akiko
Sato, Hitoshi
Takatsuji, Toshihiro
Jimba, Masamine
Kimura, Shinzo
The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture
title The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture
title_full The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture
title_fullStr The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture
title_full_unstemmed The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture
title_short The Knowledge and Awareness for Radiocesium Food Monitoring after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture
title_sort knowledge and awareness for radiocesium food monitoring after the fukushima daiichi nuclear accident in nihonmatsu city, fukushima prefecture
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30340414
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102289
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