Food Blog: Should we be worried about radiation in fish?

Share

Tweet

Email This Page

Sign up here for
our Newsletter: *

The biggest dangers appear to be in our minds

Since the Japanese tsunami and the trouble at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the question of radiation in seafood seems to plague a lot of folks … unnecessarily.

Agreement is widespread among people who know that there is little reason for concern. Probably as a result of overblown public fears, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently said it is requiring seafood imported from Japan to be checked for radiation before it enters the food supply.

Of course the agency doesn’t have nearly the personnel or budget to actually do this kind of heavy monitoring. It doesn’t inspect 80 percent of the seafood that is imported to the U.S., even though the levels of contamination, illegal antibiotics and chemicals that some have found are astounding. But only some four percent of imported seafood comes from Japan anyway.

This was supposed to change: A food safety overhaul bill signed into law by President Barack Obama earlier this year would have increased inspections of foreign food facilities that export to the United States, but considering that Republicans are involved in an all-out attack on spending, it doesn’t seem likely that this will come to pass.

As far as radiation, though, a broad range of scientists have said there is little to fear. ABC News interviewed Nicholas Fisher, professor of marine sciences at State University of New York at Stony Brook, and he said, “The cesium levels are still such that you could consume about 35 pounds of that fish per year before you'd have any possible problems.”

Virtually all the experts say that iodine radiation dissipates quickly in fish and the seawater. MSNBC interviewed Andrew Maidment, an associate professor of radiology and chief of physics and radiology at the University of Pennsylvania. He said that even though radioactive iodine 131 and cesium 137 have been detected in vegetables and plants near the stricken nuclear reactors, the levels are low enough that they don’t pose a health threat at the moment.

The World Health Organization agrees.

Nonetheless, fear and rumor usually trump fact and logic, so it is likely that Japan will suffer big economic losses as a result of people not buying their products. This on top of the estimated 20,000 lives lost in the tsunami.

Our sympathy goes out to them. Please make a donation to further help in the disaster relief at: