Radioactive rice seized, shipments suspended, monitoring expanded

The Asahi Shimbun reports that radioactive rice from highly contaminated regions of Fukushima Prefecture were sold to unwary consumers even though they violated Japanese government limits on contamination. In response, government agents will increase monitoring in areas known to be highly contaminated. The Japanese federal government has declared foodstuffs containing less than 500 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram as fit for human consumption, even though UN agencies have a stronger standard of just 350 Bq/kg of food. No level of radioactive contamination in food can be said to be "safe" -- it has been long established that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how small, carries a health risk.