When traveling in Japan and eating Japanese food, remember to take calcium tablets (posthumous work of Dr. Lin Jieliang)

Lin Jie-Liang, a physician in the Toxicology Division at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, passed away yesterday (the 5th) from an infection that led to multiple organ failure. He was one of the very few toxicology physicians in the country, and when facing the toxic risks that food might conceal, he never feared offending any business operator or powerful figure, always telling the public the truth based on his professional expertise.

This report was written by him and published last month in <<Consumer Reports>>. With people in this country now being the number one source of tourists to Japan, it holds very high reference value and practical information for those traveling to Japan. Here I simply thank Dr. Lin for his efforts and dedication to toxic risks in Taiwan, and I hope his family will find some comfort in their grief.

When traveling to Japan and enjoying Japanese food, remember to take calcium tablets

By Lin Jie-Liang (Physician, Clinical Toxicology Division, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital)

If your daily diet does not include enough minerals, your body will more readily absorb radioactive elements. If you travel to Japan during summer vacation, from Shizuoka Prefecture in the south to Hokkaido in the north, you should carry calcium tablets and take in enough calcium and fruit from uncontaminated areas (rich in potassium) to reduce the absorption of strontium-90, plutonium-238, and cesium-137.

Radiation is everywhere in life. From nature, food, medical treatment, and international flights, we all come into contact with low doses of radiation. Taiwan's natural background radiation is about 2 millisieverts per year, while internationally it is considered that, apart from natural background radiation, each person's annual radiation exposure dose should not exceed 1 millisievert per year.

Take everyday life as an example: one chest X-ray exposes a person to 0.02 millisieverts; smoking 1 pack of cigarettes a day for 1 year is equivalent to exposure to a radiation dose of 10 millisieverts.

In addition, there is no so-called safe dose for cancer caused by ionizing radiation, so ordinary people should avoid all kinds of unnecessary radiation exposure, but a small amount of radiation exposure is no cause for panic.

More than 2 years have passed since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Some radioactive substances with long half-lives, such as cesium (Cs) 137 and strontium (Sr) 90, may still remain in the environment, so it is advisable to reduce consumption of agricultural products produced locally, or to take in enough potassium and calcium to reduce radiation harm.

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, radiation everywhere is a hidden concern

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred in 2011, the Japanese government, like other countries around the world, repeatedly covered up the truth once a nuclear disaster happened. The Japanese government repeatedly concealed the true severity of the nuclear disaster, causing the Japanese people to no longer believe the information released by the Japanese government.

On August 28, 2011, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry admitted for the first time that the cesium-137 leaked from Units 1 to 3 at the Fukushima plant was 168.5 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, radioactive iodine (I) 131 was 2.5 times, and radioactive strontium-90 was 2.4 times. At the time, the whole world wondered why, although all nuclear disasters involve radioactive strontium-90 contamination, the Japanese government never mentioned radioactive strontium-90 during the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and only mentioned radioactive strontium-90 for the first time 5 months after the nuclear disaster.

On July 24, 2012, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced that after the Fukushima nuclear leakage accident, in addition to Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, radioactive substance strontium-90 was detected in the atmosphere in 10 prefectures including Tokyo, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa.

Strontium-90 has properties similar to the element calcium, but the half-life of strontium-90 in the environment is about 30 years, and in the human body it takes 30 to 50 years for its radiation intensity to decrease by half. Strontium-90 readily accumulates in bones, increasing the risk of bone cancer or leukemia.

Strontium-90 causes more severe radiation harm to the human body than cesium-137, because although the half-life of cesium-137 in the environment is about 30 years, in the human body it takes only 70 days for its radiation intensity to decrease by half.

Cesium-137 has properties similar to potassium ions and readily accumulates in muscles and internal organs, increasing the risk of cancer. If your daily diet does not include enough minerals (for example: iodine, potassium, calcium), your body may more readily absorb radioactive elements. Therefore, before or at the same time as exposure to radioactive substances, taking sufficient calcium tablets or consuming enough fruits and vegetables from uncontaminated areas can reduce the body's absorption of strontium-90 or cesium-137.

On August 21, 2012, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said that a survey within a 100-kilometer radius around the site of the Fukushima nuclear leakage accident found plutonium (Pu) 238 at 10 locations. Plutonium-238 is more radioactive than the plutonium-239 used in nuclear weapons and can cause cancer.

The half-life of plutonium-238 in the environment is about 88 years, and in the human body it takes about 20 to 50 years for its radiation intensity to decrease by half. Plutonium-238 also readily accumulates in bones, increasing the risk of bone cancer or leukemia. Plutonium-238 causes more severe radiation harm to the human body than strontium-90. Taking 1 calcium tablet 1 hour before meals should also reduce the body's absorption of plutonium-238.

No country has ever been as fond of traveling to Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster as the people of Taiwan. The people of Taiwan are even braver than the Japanese, going to eat and drink heavily foods and seafood that may be contaminated by radiation.

Taking enough calcium tablets and fruits and vegetables helps reduce radiation absorption

The radioactive substances released in the Japanese nuclear disaster, such as strontium-90, plutonium-238, and cesium-137, still enter crops, fruit, and seafood produced within 300 kilometers around Fukushima (the distance at which the U.S. aircraft carrier withdrew) through the food chain. If you are going to Japan to have fun, from Shizuoka Prefecture in the south to Hokkaido in the north, you should carry calcium tablets and take in enough calcium and fruit from uncontaminated areas (rich in potassium), to reduce the absorption of strontium-90, plutonium-238, and cesium-137.

Likewise, before eating a lot of food in Taiwan that may come from contaminated areas in Japan, taking a calcium tablet and fruit may help your health.

At the beginning of the nuclear disaster, it was widely said that eating iodine-containing foods could prevent iodine-131, but the half-life of iodine-131 in nature is only 8 days, and in the human body it takes only 120 days for its radiation intensity to decrease by half. By now iodine-131 in the environment no longer has radioactive activity, so there is no need to supplement it specifically.

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred in Japan in 2011, it triggered panic about eating fish along Japan's Pacific coast. Within a few months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the United States caught 15 large migratory bluefin tuna in the waters off San Diego for research on radioactive substances, and found that the concentration of radioactive cesium-137 was 10 times the past level.

In February 2013, Stanford University in the United States again investigated radioactive substances in bluefin tuna caught near the California coast and found that after 2 years radioactive "cesium" still existed in the fish, but the content had already dropped substantially. Therefore, it is safe to eat and poses no health concerns for consumers. But to this day, many Japanese housewives still dare not buy local seafood to eat.

Therefore, if you like eating foods imported from Japan or like traveling to Japan, do not forget to take calcium tablets.

(This article is from Consumer Reports issue 387, Truth Express P.54-55, publication date: 2013-07)