Sample Size Allocation for Food Item Radiation Monitoring and Safety Inspection

Seto, Mayumi; Uriu, Koichiro

doi:10.1111/risa.12276

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The goodness-of-fit test (Anderson-Darling and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests) supported that the radiocesium concentration of spinach in March followed a gamma distribution. (19) The α and β of spinach and cabbage at t = 0 were estimated by fitting Equation (2) to the radiocesium concentrations of the samples collected in Fukushima between March 17 and 22, 2011 (Table II). A k-fold increase in x 0 scales Equation (2) to a gamma distribution with shape parameter α and scale parameter kβ.…”

Section: Dynamics and Distribution Of Radiocesium In Vegetablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Immense effort is invested in accumulating food monitoring data sets immediately after a nuclear accident, but less effort is devoted to data analyses. Seto and Uriu (19) demonstrated that simultaneous data sampling and analysis may assist in identifying target food items in future monitoring campaigns. If sufficient data sets can be compiled prior to removing a restriction, they can be subjected to prompt statistical analysis.…”

Section: Early Estimation Of the Restriction Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An alternative approach for the stringent requirement for removing the restriction may be the efficient allocation of sample sizes of foodstuffs in order of their contamination levels. (19) Statistical approaches would also assist our assess-ments of food risks, which can handle the uncertainties of concentration distribution. (42)…”

Section: Sample Size Limitation Offsetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Monitoring a small number of samples will likely miss above-limit samples and may increase the risk of inappropriately removing the restriction in a local area. (19) In the MHLW instructions, the restriction on a food item in a specified area can be removed if the radioiodine and radiocesium concentrations of all samples collected from the area are below the regulatory limit (in units of Bq/kg) in three consecutive analyses. However, under this requirement, the restriction may not be necessarily removed at the right time when the number of monitored samples is small.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of Instructions on Protection Against Food Contaminated with Radiocesium in Japan in 2011

et al. 2017

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The Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has published instructions for radiological protection against food after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in 2011. Following the instructions, the export and consumption of food items identified as being contaminated were restricted for a certain period. We assessed the validity of the imposed restriction periods for two representative vegetables (spinach and cabbage) grown in Fukushima Prefecture from two perspectives: effectiveness for reducing dietary dose and economic efficiency. To assess effectiveness, we estimated the restriction period required to maintain consumers' dose below the guidance dose levels. To assess economic efficiency, we estimated the restriction period that maximizes the net benefit to taxpayers. All estimated restriction periods were shorter than the actual restriction periods imposed on spinach and cabbage from Fukushima in 2011, which indicates that the food restriction effectively maintained consumers' dietary dose below the guidance dose level, but in an economically inefficient manner. We also evaluated the response of the restriction period to the sample size for each weekly food safety test and the instructions for when to remove the restriction. Stringent MHLW instructions seemed to sufficiently reduce consumers' health risk even when the sample size for the weekly food safety test was small, but tended to increase the economic cost to taxpayers.

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Section: Dynamics and Distribution Of Radiocesium In Vegetablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Early Estimation Of the Restriction Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sample Size Limitation Offsetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of Instructions on Protection Against Food Contaminated with Radiocesium in Japan in 2011

et al. 2017

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Assessment of the effectiveness of the post-Fukushima food monitoring campaign in the first year after the nuclear accident: A hypothesis

Steinhäuser

2016

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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The purpose of this study was to assess whether or not the food monitoring campaign after the Fukushima nuclear accident has been successful in reducing the number of above-limit-food from reaching the consumers. The hypothesis of this study is that the fraction of "post-market" food can be used for this purpose, when the post-market fraction in the above-limit (p') items is compared to the post-market fraction in the entity of food items (p) that have been screened for radionuclides ((134)Cs and (137)Cs). Indeed the post-market fraction in most vegetarian produce decreased significantly in the above-limit food items (p'/p < 1), indicating a high efficiency of the monitoring campaign. For tea, however, the analysis reveals a low efficiency of the campaign (p'/p ≈ 1). For beef, the fraction of post-market-foods within the above-limit samples was much higher than the respective fraction in the entity of measured samples (p'/p > 1), indicating a much lower effectiveness of the monitoring action for beef. The author speculates that, by following the governmental monitoring manual (which gives "meat" only second priority), the sudden exceedances caught the monitoring agencies unprepared and triggered a much higher density monitoring of beef with the delay of several weeks. Even then, many above limit items reached the market (mainly because the monitoring during this period had focused on the post-market). Therefore, it is likely that some above-limit beef has been consumed by the public. For other meat products, the fraction of post-market samples was very low, which does not allow for the validation of the effectiveness of the monitoring campaign. Overall, the monitoring seemed to have been more effective for vegetarian produce than for meat.

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Sample Size Allocation for Food Item Radiation Monitoring and Safety Inspection

Cited by 2 publications

References 19 publications

Assessment of Instructions on Protection Against Food Contaminated with Radiocesium in Japan in 2011

Assessment of Instructions on Protection Against Food Contaminated with Radiocesium in Japan in 2011

Assessment of the effectiveness of the post-Fukushima food monitoring campaign in the first year after the nuclear accident: A hypothesis

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