Tokyo Tap Water Declared Unsafe For Babies

Channel Four News
March 23, 2011

Japanese authorities advise that infants should only drink bottled water after the detection of more than twice the safe level of radioactive iodine in the Tokyo water supply.

Tap water in Tokyo has been declared unsafe for babies – after high levels of radiation were discovered.

Authorities in the Japanese capital said tests on water in a purification plant had found 210 bequerels of iodine-131 per 1kg of tap water -  more twice the safe level of radioactive iodine for infants.

The city’s governor. Shintaro Ishihara insisted there was no immediate risk to most of the population. But he said, “for infants under age one, I would like them to refrain from using tap water to dilute baby formula.”

Residents living in the surrounding area have already been told not to drink tap water because of the high levels of radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer if it’s ingested in large quantities. After this latest announcement – the Financial Times reported that Tokyo supermarkets have sold out of bottled water and have been limiting customers to three bottles each. Another supermarket popular with foreign residents said it had sold out of water supplies within an hour.

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