Radiation particles from Japan miniscule - PNRI

MANILA, Philippines -  The government gave assurance yesterday that the radiation particles from Japan that reached the Philippines are too “miniscule” to threaten public health and contaminate food supply. 

Corazon Bernido, deputy director of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), said the radioactive particles from Japan will disperse once carried by the air.

“There was an explosion of radioactivity towards the Pacific Ocean. Once these (particles) move, there would be dispersion…The main bulk of the plume will not be brought here,” she said in a meeting with disaster management officials in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Bernido said the amount of radiation particles monitored by international experts is too small to cause negative impact on human health.

“Environmental radiation monitoring worldwide has detected very tiny amounts of radioactive isotopes which appeared to be coming from the Fukushima reactors, which pose no human health hazards,” she said.

Bernido said the amount of radiation one gets from eating a banana is 280 times more than that which can be contracted from the particles blown from Japan.

“When you eat a banana it has potassium which emits radiation. The amount of radioactivity dose will be 280 times the amount of the radioactive iodine and cesium you can get in a day,” Bernido said.

PNRI has not recommended the screening of tourists from Japan. Fifteen of them, however, have requested that thyroid scan be performed on them.

The latest bulletin from PNRI showed that the radiation level in the country remains at 94-118 nanosieverts per hour, still within the normal radiation levels.

A nanosievert is one billionth of a millisievert.

Bernido said a radiation level of zero to 250 millisiverts has no obvious effect on human health. Radiation level of 250 to 1,000 millisiverts, however, can cause temporary nausea, changes in the blood cell, and sterility in males, although it would not cause early death.– With Sheila Crisostomo, Helen Flores