Tokyo tap water alert deepens fears

Tokyo’s municipal government sparked a run on bottled water after warning that the city’s water supply had become contaminated with radiation, widening concerns about the effect on Japan’s food supplies from the Fukushima nuclear ­crisis.

Municipal officials said levels of iodine-131 at Tokyo’s water purification plant had risen to 210 becquerels per kilogram on Wednesday, more than twice Japan’s 100 bq/kg recommended limit for infants. The adult recommended limit is 300bq/kg.

Foreign governments began to take precautionary action. The US and Hong Kong banned the import of fruit, vegetables and dairy products from the area surrounding the Fukushima plant.

Germany and Britain are also among European Union countries that have imposed extra checks on food imports such as fish and soy sauce from Japan for radioactive contamination, food regulators said.

Several embassies have closed in Tokyo, and Austria, Germany and Switzerland are among countries that have moved Tokyo offices to other cities.

Health officials played down the potential health risks from the water contamination in Tokyo. Japan’s guidelines for iodine-131 in water are far tighter than the internationally agreed “operational intervention levels” for the substance, which put permissible levels at up to 3,000bq/kg, according to the World Health Organisation.

“Iodine-131 is not a significant source of radiation because of its low specific activity,” the WHO said in a report on Japan’s nuclear crisis this week.

Still, some people were unsettled by the water warning. The National Azabu supermarket in Tokyo’s Hiroo district – where many expats live – said bottled water sold out within an hour of the news. “It’s gone, just gone, it all sold out so quickly ... people seem to be very scared,” a supermarket official said.

Some citizens were more relaxed. Yuji Sanada, a waiter at a restaurant in central Tokyo, said he hoped the warning would not lead to shortages of bottled water that could affect consumers in Japan’s tsunami-ravaged north-east, where many households are still without water supplies.

“In Tokyo, we still have tap water that’s drinkable for adults, so we should use it,” Mr Sanada said.

Yukio Edano, chief cabinet secretary, said the water might pose a health threat only if consumed over a long period, but acknowledged that contamination could spread.

Although the warning on tap water applied only to babies under one, Japanese people are cautious about food safety and many may shun tap water – putting pressure on limited supplies of bottled water.

The announcement came after an order from the Japanese government halting shipments of raw milk from Fukushima and of spinach from the prefecture and neighbouring Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma.

Higher levels of radioactive substances than normal were found in those products after radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was crippled by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

In a reminder that the situation at the nuclear plant remains serious, repair work at Fukushima was halted on Wednesday after smoke was seen pouring from a reactor, forcing emergency workers to evacuate. It was the second time in three days that grey smoke from the No 3 reactor has brought emergency work to a stop.

Additional reporting by Mure Dickie in Tokyo