KORIYAMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Amid confusion and anger over government radiation standards, most school children in Fukushima Prefecture will not be able to swim outdoors this summer.
KORIYAMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Amid confusion and anger over government radiation standards, most school children in Fukushima Prefecture will not be able to swim outdoors this summer.
On the urging of municipalities, the education ministry is considering establishing radiation standards for outdoor pools. In the meantime, concerns about radiation in the swimming pool water have spread outside Fukushima Prefecture.
The ministry on April 19 said students could take part in outdoor gym classes if radiation levels in the schoolyards were below 3.8 microsieverts per hour, a standard calculated based on an annual maximum exposure of 20 millisieverts.
But after parents and experts complained that the standard was too dangerous for children, the ministry on May 27 set a new target of 1 millisievert or lower for children's annual exposure.
Most municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture then concluded that they would suspend outdoor swimming classes or refrain from holding them for the time being.
"I cannot trust anything because standards suddenly change and experts express different opinions," said a 43-year-old mother of three, including a junior high school girl, in Fukushima.
The education ministry told the prefectural board of education June 16 that schools can use outdoor pools, citing estimates that students will be exposed to extremely low levels of radiation from water in the pool.
The ministry said it is up to individual schools whether to use their outdoor pools.
According to an Asahi Shimbun survey, 30 of 33 cities, towns and villages said they will suspend outdoor swimming classes or refrain from holding them.
The three other municipalities are also not expected to conduct classes outdoors.
The survey did not cover 26 cities, towns and villages: nine close to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, where many residents have evacuated, and 17 in the Aizu area far from the plant.
The three most populous cities in Fukushima Prefecture--Iwaki, Koriyama and Fukushima--have all suspended outdoor swimming classes.
In Koriyama, elementary and junior high school students will go to the indoor pools of sports clubs at least once this summer.
On June 7, 62 fifth-graders from Momomidai Elementary School walked for three minutes to the Koriyama International Swimming Club.
The city government asked the swimming club to let four schools share its indoor pool for 12 hours each, which means each student at Momomidai Elementary School will have only two hours.
Before the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, Momomidai students were scheduled to have nine to 10 swimming classes between June and September. Now, classes other than the two at the Koriyama International Swimming Club have been switched to other indoor gym activities.
The Fukushima prefectural board of education told municipalities at the end of May that there would be no problem with holding outdoor swimming classes.
The board made its decision based on the education ministry's radiation standard for schoolyards released in April. But most municipalities had earlier decided not to conduct outdoor swimming classes based on the ministry's new target.
Parents in the Kanto region are also worried about radiation.
In Ibaraki Prefecture, several cities, including Mito and Joso, have refrained from using outdoor school pools.
"Many parents have expressed concerns (about radiation)," a Joso city government official said. "We will decide whether to give the green light to outdoor swimming classes after the central government or the prefectural government presents some guidelines."
The Joso city government on June 8 asked a private-sector research organization to investigate the amount of radioactive materials in pools of elementary and junior high schools.
In Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, the board of education on June 2 began measuring the amount of radioactive materials in pools of elementary, junior high and senior high schools.
The board earlier concluded that outdoor swimming classes should pose no health risk based on radiation amounts in the atmosphere. However, a private-sector research group noted that relatively high levels of radiation may have been found in northwestern Chiba Prefecture.
Many parents asked about the possibility of radioactive materials in rainwater accumulating in the swimming pools.
The board concluded that water was not contaminated at 23 schools and plans to complete its inspections by the end of June.
The Tokyo metropolitan board of education on June 3 told education officials from wards and other municipalities under its jurisdiction that they can hold outdoor swimming classes this summer.
The board said the concentrations of radioactive materials in pools are much lower than the upper limits for potable water, and that radioactive materials have not been detected in tap water or rainwater.