#Radioactive Beef from Tochigi Prefecture - Discovery Follows Hayakawa Map

Prefectures surrounding Fukushima have reported the detection of radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional safety limit from the beef from the cows.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1:57AM JST 7/23/2011):

栃木、岩手、宮城、秋田県は２２日、各県の農家から出荷された肉牛計６頭の肉から暫定規制値（１キロ・グラムあたり５００ベクレル）を超える放射性セシウムが検出されたと発表した。

On July 22, Tochigi, Iwate, Miyagi, and Akita Prefectures [separately] announced that radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg) was detected from the meat from 6 cows shipped from their prefectures.

厚生労働省などによると、これまで規制値を上回った肉牛はいずれも福島県産の３０頭。これで５県産の３６頭になった。

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and other government agencies, all 30 cows whose meat exceeded the provisional safety limit for cesium had been from Fukushima Prefectures. Now it is 36 cows from 5 prefectures.

　６頭のうち３頭は、栃木県那須塩原市の農家が７月１０日に出荷した。都内で食肉処理され、２２日に肉を検査した結果、同５６０～７６０ベクレルの セシウムが検出された。流通はしていない。飼料の稲わらは市内の近隣酪農家らが生産し、東京電力福島第一原発事故後も田に置かれていた。

Of the 6 cows, 3 were shipped from a cattle farm in Nasu Shiobara City in Tochigi Prefecture on July 10, and were processed into meat in Tokyo. The meat was tested on July 22, and 560 to 760 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected. The meat hasn't been sold in the market. The rice hay used as the feed was from nearby dairy farms in the same city, and the hay was left on the rice field even after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.

　岩手県では、放射性物質に汚染された稲わらを食べた可能性がある牛８０頭について調査したところ、６月３０日に都内で食肉処理され、京都市に流通した１頭の肉から同１２１０ベクレルのセシウムが検出された。

Iwate Prefecture investigated 80 cows suspected of being fed with the contaminated rice hay, and found the meat from one cow to contain 1,210 becquerels/kg of cesium. The cow was processed on June 30 in Tokyo, and the meat was sold in Kyoto City.

I, and many who have been looking at the radiation contour map created by Professor Yukio Hayakawa (volcanologist at Gunma University), shouldn't be surprised at the discovery of contaminated beef from Nasu Shiobara City in Gunma Prefecture, more than 100 kilometers away from the nuke plant. I circled the location in red in the map:

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1,458 Meat Cows Possibly Contaminated from Radioactive Rice Hay Have Already Been Sold

Now the case of radioactive rice hay and radioactive beef has blown wide open. First it was only a couple, then a few hundreds, then many hundreds, now it is way over thousand and counting.

It looks more and more like the Minamata mercury poisoning, except this time, it's nationwide.

Yomiuri Shinbun (1:33AM JST 7/21/2011):

高濃度の放射性セシウムに汚染された稲わらが肉牛に与えられていた問題で、岩手、秋田、新潟、群馬、静岡、岐阜の６県は２０日、各県内の畜産農家が汚染の疑いのある稲わらを肉牛に与え、６３７頭を出荷していたと発表した。

6 prefectures announced on July 20 that the cattle farmers in their prefectures had shipped the total of 637 meat cows fed with the rice hay suspected of containing radioactive cesium in high concentration. The prefectures are: Iwate, Akita, Niigata, Gunma, Shizuoka, and Gifu.

これで山形、宮城、福島、新潟各県で判明している約８５０頭を含め、汚染された疑いのある稲わらを食べた牛の出荷数は９県で約１４８５頭になった。各県などは牛の流通経路を調べ、残っている肉については放射性物質の検査をする。

850 meat cows in Yamagata, Miyagi, Fukushima, and Niigata have already been found to have eaten the contaminated rice hay. The total number of meat cows in 9 prefectures that were fed with the contaminated rice hay is now 1,485. The prefectures will track the shipment of the cows, and will conduct the test on the unsold meat.

　秋田、群馬、静岡県で与えられていた稲わらは宮城県産で、岩手県では同県産だった。稲わらから高濃度のセシウムが検出されたのは、福島、宮城に次いで３県目。岩手県では、一関市の３戸と隣接する藤沢町の２戸が計１９頭を東京都に出荷。稲わらからは１キロ・グラムあたり最高値で５万７０００ベクレルのセシウムを検出した。水分を含んだ状態に換算すると国の規制値（３００ベクレル）の４３倍に相当する。

The rice hay used in Akita, Gunma, and Shizuoka was harvested in Miyagi Prefecture. In Iwate, it was harvested within the prefecture, making Iwate the third prefecture to have been found with the rice hay with high radioactive cesium. 3 cattle farmers in Ichinoseki City and 2 cattle farmers in adjacent Fujisawa-machi in Iwate Prefecture shipped 19 meat cows to Tokyo. The rice hay in Iwate was found to contain the maximum of 57,000 becquerels/kg. If the hay is reconstituted with water, the amount of radioactive cesium is 43 times as much as the national safety limit (300 becquerels/kg).

Again, the cows didn't eat "reconstituted" rice hay. They ate the dry rice hay.

If Iwate's hay came from Ichinoseki City and its surrounding area, again it matches the radiation contour map made by Yukio Hayakawa, volcanologist at Gunma University. (For his chart, see my post on July 17).

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#Radioactive Rice Hay Found in Miyagi Prefecture

in three locations in two cities that are150 kilometers north of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

In response to the radioactive rice hay found in Fukushima Prefecture that contained up to 500,000 becquerels/kg of cesium, Miyagi Prefecture did the survey of rice hay in three locations in two cities, Kurihara City and Tome City, north of Sendai City. Maximum 3,600 becquerels/kg of cesium was found in the rice hay, which had been used by the cattle farmers to feed their cows.

Sankei Shinbun (7/15/2011) reported the comment of the cattle farmers:

「大変憤慨している」－。宮城県登米市の肉用牛農家の男性（５８）は声を荒らげた。「稲わらは秋に田んぼから収集したものだけを牛に食べさせているが、経 営への打撃は大きい」と話す。「まさかここまで（放射能が）飛んでくるとは夢にも思わなかった。...」

"I am very upset", says a cattle farmer in Tome City in Miyagi Prefecture. "I've been feeding the cows with the rice hay collected from the rice fields last fall. This is a big blow to my farm. I never imagined that the radioactive materials would fly this far. "

The Miyagi prefectural government's instruction to cattle farmers were: "Do not use the rice hay collected after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident." So, following the instruction, the cattle farmers were feeding their cows with the rice hay collected last fall.

This is the radiation contour map created by Professor Yukio Hayakawa, the volcanologist at Gunma University. Notice the arm that goes north from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant and curl left. Kurihara and Tome are right below the curl. If only someone had shown the map to the cattle farmers there ...

Or if only someone had shown the cattle farmers the radioactive materials dispersion forecast by ZAMG, German Weather Bureau, or Norwegian Weather Bureau early in the accident, they would have seen that Miyagi Prefecture was almost constantly under the radioactive plume from the nuke plant.

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