Water (2011-03-25)
One elevated reading of iodine131 in one single Kanamachi water purifying plant (March 22 at 210 becquerels) and terrifying news headlines (especially from foreign media) fly everywhere (just like the nuclear plant fallout). Since water we get from the tap is a mixture of water from up to eleven plants, by the time it gets to our home, the concentration will have greatly diluted (March 23, tap from Shinjuku (
) tested 19 becquerels). Many
people looked at one increased reading and panicked, failed to stay
calm, and rushed to hoard bottled water.Test results are posted daily (March 24 from Kanamachi plant fell to 79 becquerels) and even at the height of the scare, it's still fit for consumption for adults under Japan's much stricter legal limits (300 becquerels) than those set by International Commission On Radiological Protection.
However, since infants' developing thyroid glands are susceptible to
iodine 131's uptake, the government urged people not to give them tap
water (legal limit for babies is 100 becquerels). Tokyo also
handed out 240,000 550-ml bottled water to families with infant(s).
Skeptics will always say the government lies and the numbers are
fake. If so, why didn't the authorities just make up a pretty
figure instead of one that'd cause panic buying of bottled water?
Water testing is too straightforward a test for the government to
fudge the numbers. There are other independent agencies doing the
same tests and any lies in the results are simply too easy to be
busted.
Did you see the results of radiation level posted on Google Map by
ordinary people using their own geiger counters? I'm not saying
there are as many people testing water as there are testing air, but to
the skeptics: do you think the government is the only unit doing all
the monitoring these days in post-quake Japan?
At the moment, I don't doubt the safety of tap water. KL on
the other hand prefers bottled water as he has a strong family history
of cancer and he's paranoid of getting it all his life.
On another note, people living THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF MILES away
from Fukushima who
are worried about adverse effects on their health are stupid beyond
belief. My Gawd, how many rolling idiots are there in this
world?! And among those people who think they'll catch cancer
from the "radioactive cloud" drifted over their countries, how many of
them smoke?
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