Radioactive substances have not been detected in China's milk and drinking water. Spinach is harmless after cleaning

Radioactive substances have not been detected in China's milk and drinking water. Spinach is harmless after cleaning. Spinach is not harmful to health when eaten. China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Radiation Protection and...

Radioactive substances have not been detected in China's milk and drinking water. Spinach is harmless after cleaning. Spinach is harmless to health when eaten after cleaning. Su Xu, director of the Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Medicine at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the Nuclear Accident Medical Emergency Center of the Ministry of Health, said on the 11th that radioactive substances have not yet been detected in milk and drinking water in my country. Spinach with detected radioactive substances will not affect public health after being washed and eaten. Su Xu said at a regular press conference of the Ministry of Health that as long as radioactive materials can be detected in the environment and air within our country, testing of food and drinking water will continue. Guangdong, Jiangsu, Liaoning and other coastal areas have also arranged to inspect seafood products. Recently, radioactive substances have been detected in some vegetables in China. Does eating these vegetables have any impact on your body? In response to this question, Su Xu replied that a recent experiment showed that if spinach with radioactive iodine-131 was soaked in water for about 10 minutes, and then washed again, iodine-131 could no longer be detected. In the case of trace amounts, cleaning once can remove about 50%, and cleaning three times can reduce it to less than 90%. "Currently, the contamination is very trace and can be washed away. There is no need to panic." He said that because the content is extremely trace, it will not have any impact when washing vegetables. Su Xu said that the vegetables currently being sampled are mainly large-leaf vegetables with a velvety surface. In Beijing, spinach, shepherd's purse, and lettuce leaves are mainly tested. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has three machines that can detect radioactive substances, one each for vegetables, drinking water and milk. Because the content is low, it takes more than 20 hours to detect a sample. If the content is high, it can be detected in a few hours. Su Xu said that according to data released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, trace amounts of the radioactive substance iodine-131 are present in the air. Because radioactive substances in the air settle to the ground, they will contaminate vegetables growing in the open air on the ground. Rain and snow will accelerate sedimentation, which is equivalent to "washing" radioactive materials in the air. Therefore, in some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in my country, some vegetables such as spinach and lettuce leaves have been tested for trace amounts of radioactive iodine-131. Su Xu pointed out that since the amount of radioactive material in the air is extremely small, the amount that falls naturally or is accelerated by rain and snow is also very small. The radioactive substances detected on the surface of vegetables are very weak. Eating one kilogram of these vegetables every day will produce a radiation dose burden equivalent to about one thousandth to three thousandths of the daily amount of natural radiation background. Su Xu also told reporters that my country has banned the import of food, edible agricultural products and feed from 12 counties in Japan, making it difficult for Japanese contaminated food to enter the country. In addition, when answering reporters' questions, Su Xu also pointed out that according to expert analysis, the ocean near Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant is currently relatively heavily polluted by nuclear radiation, but so far it has had no impact on my country's offshore waters. Radioactive materials in the ocean diffuse relatively slowly, and the ocean contains a large amount of seawater. During the diffusion process, it will continue to settle as the seawater surges up and down.