Radioactive materials were detected in breast milk samples provided by mothers living in Fukushima Prefecture and surrounding areas, but the health ministry dismissed the health risks to infants.
Radioactive materials were detected in breast milk samples provided by mothers living in Fukushima Prefecture and surrounding areas, but the health ministry dismissed the health risks to infants.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said April 30 that its checks found a tiny amount of radioactive substances in seven of 23 breast milk samples collected April 24 and 25.
The samples were from women breastfeeding their babies who live in areas where they were asked to refrain from using tap water and where the shipment of food products was restricted.
Radioactive iodine at 3.5 becquerels per 1 kilogram and radioactive cesium at 2.4 becquerels per 1 kilo was detected in one sample provided by a mother in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
The checks also detected radioactive iodine ranging from 2.2 becquerels to 8.0 becquerels per 1 kilo in samples taken from five women in Ibaraki Prefecture, which is in the south of Fukushima Prefecture, and a woman in Chiba, the capital of Chiba Prefecture, Ibaraki's southern neighbor.
The remainder--three in Fukushima Prefecture, four in Ibraki Prefecture, one in Chiba Prefecture, one in Saitama Prefecture and seven in Tokyo---detected no contamination.
"Results showed that no radioactive material was detected or that only a tiny amount of radioactive material was detected," a health ministry official said. "We believe that it will not affect infants even if their mothers breastfeed them."
There are no central government-designated safety standards for radioactive substances contained in breast milk.
The ministry based its risk assessments on the government's provisional safe limits of 100 becquerels for radioactive iodine per 1 kilo and 200 becquerels for radioactive cesium per 1 kilo in drinking water for infants.