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> "Considered" by whom?

German and EU authorities.

> What are the actual levels? How do they compare to the radioactivity of other foods?

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/hohe-radioaktive-werte-wil...

Legal levels are <400 Bq/kg for baby food and 600 Bq/kg for other foods; contamination in these cases ranges from 1000 to 10000 Bq/kg.





Allowable intake levels are different for different isotopes. Potassium has a biological half life of a few hours, Caesium (the isotope in question here), of several weeks.

The FDA apparently doesn't even bother with regulating allowable Potassium-40 levels due to this.


Which is why you shouldn't use Bq/kg and instead use Sieverts. It's not that bad, human body can get rid of caesium-131 etc. pretty well via kidneys. The main problem was radioiodide which accumulates in thyroid and parathyroid glands and super heavy isotopes which are chemically dangerous, e.g. plutionium and uranium - but these do not disperse far at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert - Recommended reading, has a handy table. Fukushima doesn't even register as dangerous in there, equivalent to about 3 full CT scans.

Data from Chernobyl is scarce, but I'd suspect 4x that value due to more retained isotopes.


The US FDA thinks 1000 Bq/kg for Cs-137 is just fine.[1] Browsing around, I have seen other sources that go higher. I am not knowledgeable enough to know if one or both of those limits is overly conservative. Considering my experience with other food safety limits, I would say they probably are.

[1] http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/ComplianceManuals/CompliancePolicyG...


> The US FDA thinks 1000 Bq/kg for Cs-137 is just fine.[1]

"Fine" in the sense of "just below the limit of 1200". Even by FDA standards, 10000 Bq/kg Cs-137 is extremely high.




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