TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Radioactive cesium above the legal limit for consumption was detected Saturday in young sand lance caught off Fukushima Prefecture, as the prefecture took samples amid a voluntary ban on fishing there in the wake of the ongoing nuclear crisis.
One of the four sample fish had a level of cesium of 570 becquerels per kilogram on Thursday about 1 kilometer off the city of Iwaki, and the other three measured 480 to 500 becquerels. The limit is 500 becquerels under the Food Sanitation Law.
The samples were taken after the species was found contaminated off Ibaraki Prefecture, although fishermen have voluntarily refrained from fishing off Fukushima due to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Radioactive iodine measured 1,100 to 1,700 becquerels in the samples against the legal limit of 2,000 becquerels.
The move came as food makers and restaurant operators in Japan have increasingly begun to check levels of radioactive substances in food coming from the Kanto region, where Fukushima is not included.
A guild of tobacco growers in Fukushima said, meanwhile, it has decided not to plant leaf tobacco this year although the prefecture ranked seventh last year in output among Japan's 47 prefectures.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano visited the prefecture the same day to coordinate with local authorities to keep farmers from planting rice near the nuclear complex, saying he expects the size of the banned area to be decided on in about mid-April.
Up to 26 becquerels of iodine and 8 becquerels of cesium were found in two flatfish species caught Friday off the Ibaraki city of Hitachinaka, according to the latest test results released by Ibaraki Prefecture.
The radioactive levels were also below the limits or none in strawberries and other farm produce in Fukushima, while no levels were found in spinach and three other types of produce tested in Niigata Prefecture.
(Mainichi Japan) April 10, 2011
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