Food

These are no longer the carefree days we knew in Tokyo, the sprawling metropolis with myriad delicious restaurants and never-ending taste-temptations; it has become a maze of mistrust and misunderstanding about safety and what it means to eat what. "So is it safe?" "What about from this or that prefecture?"With a bit of study it became evident that we had no guarantee of safety for our kids (or ourselves for that matter) in our former practices. We had to change our lives. It is shocking now that in May when we first began radiation measurement, I would measure Nira or Shyansai where the background was 0.09μSv/h and pick up as high as double. I guess this was the spark that ignited the burning which still motivates us to know and share more.Upon advice from a professional in the United States, we invested in our first scintillation equipment and quickly realized the need to see exactly of what those counts each minute were constituted. Like most consumers, we had some understanding of the nature of radiation but never realized we would have to become nearly radio-chemists to protect our kids and those in our neighborhoods. There were seminars and study sessions. There were many sleepless nights and hundreds of thousands of extra yen spent on food and monitoring equipment.It wasn't long before we had an operational food lab in our living room. Despite the advice that we would only be wasting our time and would not see ANYTHING, we proceeded and guess what? We saw something with no shielding, we saw a lot of something. We shared all we found on FaceBook and will continue to share there but this information should be accessible all the time, not buried in a thread and we wanted to provide a venue for doing so. This was the primary reason to create this website.Methodology: We are using a 2" NaI (Tl) scintillation probe with Al casing and epoxy coat from the US, Bee Research Gamma Spectacular GS1100A from Australia coupled together by BNC and to MacBook Pro via USB cable and USB Creative Sound Blaster sound card. For spectroscopy, we use Marek Dollieser's (University of Sydney Physics) Intune 4.0 and PRA 4.0 software which he distributes at no cost and is comparable to any professional system available. Shielding has been accomplished by rolling/ forming sheet lead and copper. All samples are 200mL in a 225mL Marinelli Beaker 0.5mm thick PET. We accept samples shipped directly upon consultation. Price will depend upon volume, circumstances, and risk. Of the first ten samples we tested, eight were very heavily contaminated with Cs137 and 134 content and prompted more widespread and accurate checking. We intentionally look for foods we consider dangerous to identify and isolate the greatest danger in the food supply. Our data should be read as such and not necessarily as a thorough cross-section of the overall distribution in Japan. All food data published is true to the best of our knowledge and in the event of a misprint a retraction shall be issued as soon as is possible. It has only been through the help of very kind and patient professionals that we have come to this point. At times we still feel like children struggling with shoelaces but these laces must be secured so we will continue until we get it right.The power of civilian food labs should not be underestimated and it is our hope that many will follow our example and we will support this goal in any way possible.Contact us for an estimate! (average single sample food: ￥1000)

Samples:

https://sites.google.com/site/tokyokidsradiation/home/tokyo-kids-radiation-food/samples