Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary

JAPANESE

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO I have a few items to report today.

First I will report on the detection of radioactivity in samples of spinach and raw milk. Yesterday the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare announced detailed data on source locations and radiation amounts. Today again, we will have the Health Ministry make an announcement based on the results of monitoring and compilation of data.

First of all, I want to ask everyone to recognize and understand that while levels of radiation exceeding the provisional standard values established by the Food Sanitation Act have been detected, these are not levels that have an impact on human health. Basically, as I noted yesterday, the provisional standard values are based on the premise of a possible impact on health if foods with these radiation levels are ingested over the course of a lifetime. These values represent very low levels indeed. Specialists are in agreement that eating or drinking these items a few times cannot affect human health. For this reason, I begin my comments today with a request that people respond calmly, without overreacting.

Having said that, as the results of our monitoring do show agricultural products with radiation levels above the provisional standard values, the prime minister - also serving as the chief of the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters - today issued directions to the governors of the prefectures in question to limit shipments of food products from certain areas, based on Article 20, Paragraph 3 of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness.

In identifying the range of products to be covered by these directions, we have based our decisions on data gathered so far, selecting specific items based on the forms of produce and identifying geographic areas with consideration given to the expansion of locations where radiation levels exceed the provisional standard values, as well as to the fact that in some cases produce is labeled with its source identified only down to the prefectural level. We are receiving recommendations from the Nuclear Safety Commission in this process.

More specifically, with respect to spinach and kakina, a leafy vegetable of genus Brassica, we have issued directions to curtail shipments for the time being from all areas of Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Gunma Prefectures, and - although we have yet to begin monitoring here - in Fukushima Prefecture, whose farming areas are closer to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Directions have also been issued to curtail shipments of raw milk from all areas of Fukushima Prefecture for the time being.

To repeat, there will be no immediate impact on your health even if you continue to ingest the food products subject to these shipment restrictions. It would be an undesirable situation if these conditions exceeding the provisional standard values were to continue for a long time, and this is why we have implemented these shipment restriction measures at this time.

From now on, monitoring will be undertaken in each affected area, and the Health Ministry will compile the results. We will issue additional directions as necessary following analysis and evaluation of these survey results.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of these shipment restrictions and maintain the safety of food reaching consumers, we will take all necessary steps to provide retroactive compensation as appropriate to producers of the food in question.

Turning next to water, yesterday radioactive iodine exceeding maximum allowed ingestion levels was found in the water supply in the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture. We have received a report that based on a Health Ministry notice, the local authorities have asked residents to avoid drinking the tap water.

This decision is also based on limits defined similarly to those for food products, and the radiation levels now being reported will have no immediate effect on human health. As a precautionary measure, residents are being asked to avoid drinking the water. Using the tap water for other daily uses is not a problem. The Iitate authorities have instructed residents that if they have no access to alternative sources of drinking water, they can drink tap water without health concerns, but that they should reduce their intake where possible. We have also received a report that today the radiation levels are falling in this water.

With respect to the detailed data and other matters, after this there will be press conferences at the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. Please attend these for further information.

There is a difference between the areas where produce shipment restrictions have now gone into effect and the areas where residents have been evacuated or asked to remain indoors. The areas where people have been evacuated or asked to remain indoors have been set as a measure to prevent potential effects on health, based on levels of radioactive matter detected in the atmosphere. Outside these zones, in areas where produce shipment restrictions are now in place, the density of atmospheric radioactive matter is nowhere near a level that would affect the human body. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology has given detailed reports on this.

I want to make clear, however, that these levels in food and drink do not pose any risk to the health even if they happen to be consumed now. The distribution restrictions we have imposed on certain goods have been taken as a contingency measure in case similar levels continue to be detected over the long term. Naturally, the standards for coming into contact with a substance in the atmosphere and taking it into the body are different. I want to reassure people living in the areas where these restrictions have been imposed that radiation levels in the atmosphere in those areas do not pose any problem whatsoever in regard to their daily lives. Please do not misunderstand the significance of these restrictions, and please maintain a calm response.

Next, in regard to the situation at the nuclear power station, I believe the media have already reported that smoke has been coming from the Unit 3 reactor. At the present time, none of the data we are getting from our various monitoring points show any negative influence from this. Obviously, there are many flammable objects inside the reactor structure besides the reactor itself. The people on the scene are working to ascertain the facts of the situation, including the possibility that a fire has started from some such flammable items within the reactor structure. At the moment, we have no reason to suspect a problem with the reactor or radiation. We are continuing to monitor the situation carefully and are doing our utmost to ascertain the facts of the situation.

A joint meeting was held from four o' clock this afternoon of the Headquarters for Earthquake Emergency Disaster Measures and the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters. At this meeting, a review was carried out and adjustments made to the framework in place in terms of arrangements and collaboration, chiefly between the various ministries. As you are probably aware, the work of responding to emergencies of this kind was regularly carried out by the Crisis Management Center based in underground offices located here beneath the Prime Minister's Office. The Headquarters for Special Measures to Assist the Lives of Disaster Victims was established to provide an individual response to the vastly increased volume of such work since the disaster took place. The headquarters is already mobilizing and working in partnership with the regular team underneath the Cabinet Office. The work of gathering information and issuing instructions from the headquarters has now been brought together under one roof in the hall under the main Cabinet Office building. Today's review of the organization and framework necessary for improved collaboration between the various ministries should allow collaboration between ministries to proceed more smoothly and allow us to provide a speedier and more robust response to events starting tomorrow.

That is all I have to report for now.