Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Japan Radiation: Radioactive Apple.


Have you seen this tongue in cheek comic depicting Snow White asking if the apple giving old lady is from Japan? The comic was published in the International Herald Tribune. And though it is damaging to the Japanese food exports, it hits pretty close to home. There is just not enough resources to measure and keep all possibly tainted food in Japan from reaching the market. Two big slips were made already. One including tainted beef and another including tainted Tea. The items had already been put on the shelves of stores, purchased and ingested by consumers. The tainted beef was actually fed to school students for their school lunches.

Any hint of letting this information out is frowned upon. Websites have lost entire pages and news sites have deleted entire columns. But when it comes to Print, there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it from being seen by the public. That comic put the Japanese Consulate in New York in a Sissy fit. They complained to the Herald Tribune, and for good reason. They said Japanese exports are being verified by customs officials in both countries. This is true, but not 100% of the food - even with both countries verifying - can be tested. However, the big question is, what about the people living in Japan? How safe is their food when they have already been exposed to highly contaminated food products two times that we know of?

Though the Japanese government is not being completely transparent, their culpability is uncertain at best. Who is inspecting the inspectors, how is the process being done exactly? Without this transparency, the uncertainty is incontrovertibly concerning. There is no way to know how much radiation intake a person is receiving from food in Japan unless they do the testing themselves. How can you trust a government that appears to update their statements or apologize for their gaffes every other day? If the heads of the government have to resign because of too many mistakes, what does that say about the government's reliability?

I'd sure like to know who to believe.

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