This is a follow up to my previous post about above-safety limits levels of radioactive elements (namely, cesium) found on tea grown in Kanagawa prefecture. As I’ve stated in the updates in the poat, tea grown in Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures were also found with similar levels of cesium. All such tea has been destroyed and has not reached the market.
In the comments to that post, there seems to be some confusion over news reports that stated that Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures refused to have ‘bulk tea’ tested. This is misleading and erroneous.Tea goes through 3 testable stages: the fresh, unprocessed tea leaves called nama-cha (meaning ‘raw tea’); partially processed tea called ara-cha (which literally means ‘rough tea’); and the final brewed tea called inyo-cha (meaning ‘drinking tea’). Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Chiba, and Ibaraki prefecture tea growers, with the backing of their respective prefectural governors, have had the fresh unprocessed tea leaves and the final brewed tea tested for radioactive substances, not the in-between ‘rough leaves’ state. As a consumer, the final number seems to be the most important one to me, since that’s what I would actually be drinking.
I’ve also found this data sheet issued by Shizuoka prefecture. It lists the radioactive substance levels tested on tea harvested at various locations around the prefecture. (Note: the Japanese data sheet has been up since the testing dates but it took them a bit longer to translate it into English. I’m glad they did…makes my job easier!) To reiterate again: this is this year’s new tea crop. It does not apply to the tea that is already at your stores, especially if you are not in Japan. If you’re in Japan this applies to any shincha (new tea) you may start seeing soon. (More about shincha.)
So, as I covered in my previous post, iodine-131 already seems to have died off, as it were, and is no longer detectable. Cesium has been detected, but at below-safety-limit levels, even on the fresh tea leaves (which would probably have the highest concentration of cesium). Most of the numbers are way belog the 500 becquerel safety limit. (Though I wish they would explain the 379 Becl number in Izu at top, with the much lower number measured a few days after. Rainfall?). You can also check out how they brewed the tea at the bottom of the page.
Anyway, these numbers are available for you to draw your own conclusions. I think it would be interested to test all tea leaves, just for comparison’s sake. Is the tea grown in China ok? India? Sri Lanka? (Personally I would not hesitate to drink Shizuoka tea, or even giving it to a baby, though of course, babies probably shouldn’t be drinking tea in the first place!)
One final note: I have tried as much as possible to be patient, but I have to say I’m getting a bit tired of this subject, especially with people who want to argue something along the lines of “we want NO radiation” etc. Please refer to the Chart and avoid sleeping next to a person or eating a banana for the rest of your life.
(Regular readers, I promise, the usual recipe-type fun programming will return shortly. ^_^;)
